Lord Ivar Mountbatten and James Coyle Are Now Married, Marking the First Gay Royal Wedding
The Queen’s cousin held a private ceremony in Devon, where his ex-wife walked him down the aisle.
Just as all of the royal wedding hype was finally beginning to wind down, this past Pride Month brought the announcement that plans for the first gay royal wedding were officially underway, thanks to Lord Ivar Mountbatten, who’s the Queen’s third cousin once removed, and his partner, James Coyle, an airline cabin services director whom Lord Ivar met in 2014, at an alpine resort in Switzerland. Four years later, over the weekend, the two finally wed, on what Lord Ivar described as “an amazing day despite the miserable British weather” in a gallery of photos from the small ceremony and celebration on Instagram on Monday.
Lord Ivar also made a point to thank Coyle—“for being just perfect”—though he also has his ex-wife, Penny, to whom he was married for 17 years, to thank for their union: She was, in fact, the one who walked him down the aisle and handed him off to Coyle. Their daughters—22-year-old Ella, 20-year-old Alix, and 16-year-old Luli—were also there for support, not to mention the festivities. (They’re pictured below, along with Penny, in bright red on the far left.)
They weren’t the only family members who took part in the wedding. Afterward, Lord Ivar also shared that his and Coyle’s dog Rosie was “exhausted from participating in the marriage ceremony, not to mention hoovering up all the scraps falling from the party tables,” along with a photo of her wearing a rainbow ribbon, and the hashtags “#myownersjustgotmarried #toabloke! #omg.” As for the newlyweds, they opted for something a bit more traditional, wearing dark green and navy matching velvet smoking jackets.
While Princess Margaret was among those who attended Lord Ivar’s marriage to Penny 24 years ago, this time around, no other royals were to be found in the private chapel where the two wed in Devon. More specifically, the chapel was on the deer-studded grounds of Lord Ivar’s mansion Bridwell Park, where weddings and corporate events are often hosted, which is why they couldn’t change the date of their ceremony when it turned out that Lord Ivar’s “lifelong friend” Prince Edward wouldn’t be able to make it. (The Daily Mail reports that the prince sent the “warmest of congratulations” to the couple; according to Lord Ivar, he and his wife, Sophie, the Countess of Essex, “adore James.”)
As for what went down in the orangery after the ceremony, there was Pol Roger, Winston Churchill’s favorite champagne, and a wedding cake made out of cheese. And while there weren’t any gifts—the couple requested that guests instead donate to the spinal injury charity Regain—there seems to have been no shortage of dancing, as well as music performed by the Bristol Teachers Rock Choir and a singer named Joe Bailey, who played an acoustic cover of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”
Coyle and Lord Ivar are waiting until next year to take their honeymoon—likely to either Croatia or Greece—as there’s quite a lot on their plate at the moment. As of today, Coyle is, in fact, already back to work; he’s now far from the miserable British weather, having boarded a plane to Rio.
Related: A Complete History of All the Mishaps and Oddities to Befall British Royal Weddings
All of the Celebrities Who Have Gotten Married In 2018 (So Far)
Henry Holland, the slogan tee extraordinaire and designer behind House of Holland, capped off his 2018 by marrying David Hodgson, the creative director of Lulu Guinness, at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London, where Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Melanie Griffith, and Liam Gallagher have all previously exchanged vows.
A few years after they costarred on ABC’s Revenge, Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman headed to the Bahamas to make like their on-screen characters and tie the knot.
The 28-year-old actor Grant Gustin—aka the Flash—married the 30-year-old physical therapist Andrea “LA” Thoma midway through December in Los Angeles. While they kept their symbolic Kadazan ceremony the held last year to honor of Thoma’s ancestors low-key, this time, they invited an actor-filled crowd to the proceedings, including Melissa Benoist and Daveed Diggs.
Having declined Donald Trump’s offer to use the White House as their wedding venue, following their engagement last year, Morning Joe cohosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski instead held their ceremony in close proximity to the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution at the National Archives. Both were married when they began their tenure at MSNBC in 2007, and both were divorced about five years later, at which point they discreetly began dating. (They purposely chose just two days after Thanksgiving to get married, hoping for some privacy while people were out of town.)
Mandy Moore and her new husband, Taylor Goldsmith, married on November 18th, 2018. Photo courtesy of Instagram @mandymooremm.
Carlos Torretta and Marta Ortega were married on Friday, November 17th, 2018, in Ortega’s hometown of A Coruña, Spain. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
“Okay, so we went and did it. And damn are we happy,” the 62-year-old comedian and former Full House star posted on Instagram in late October to announce that, following their engagement last November, he and 39-year-old Eat Travel Rock host Kelly Rizzo had gotten married. (Among those who attended the wedding were John Mayer—even though it meant delaying his Instagram live show by three hours.)
Princess Ayako of Takamodo turned away from her royal status to marry Kei Moriya, a commoner who works for a major Japanese shipping company. Per the Imperial House of Japan’s rules, women who marry non royals must forfeit their place in the royal family. Princess Ayako married Moriya at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on October 29, 2018.
Barely a week had passed after Princess Eugenie’s nuptials when yet another royal wedding came along, thanks to Duchess Sophie of Württemberg and the French aristocrat Count Maximilien of Andigné, who tied the knot at the Castle of Tegernsee in Germany, near the Bavarian Alps.
And, just a week after attending Princess Eugenie’s wedding, the 32-year-old Bloomingdale’s heiress Hayley Bloomingdale hosted her own, marking her union to the lighting designer Dada Stileman. She wore an apparently beach-friendly gown by Carolina Herrera for the ceremony, which took place in Santa Barbara.
The ever-subtle couple Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner took their six-year relationship to another level in October with a surprise small ceremony in upstate New York. The newlyweds may not share the political views of Joshua’s brother, presidential adviser Jared Kushner, but whether Kloss likes it or not, their union means that she’s now officially related to the Trumps. (Ivanka, for her part, is thrilled: She proclaimed Kloss to be her “sister” following the news of their engagement over the summer.)
The stylist (and former W fashion director) Joe Zee also headed upstate this October to get hitched, bringing his new husband, the designer Rob Younkers, along with him, of course. Julianne Moore attended the ceremony, which was followed by some rustic festivities that started off with appetizers served atop nails affixed to planks of wood.
For the Royal Wedding 2.0, royals and a surprisingly hefty number of celebrities returned to St. George’s Chapel in Windsor this October to witness the union of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank.
Just before September came to a close, Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk headed to the Hamptons to officially tie the knot in front of guests like Robert Downey Jr., Cameron Diaz, Benji Madden, and Steven Spielberg.
Despite the “miserable British weather,” as he later put it on Instagram, Lord Ivar Mountbatten married his partner, James Coyle, at the end of September in a small ceremony, which saw the latter’s ex-wife walk him down the aisle. Seeing as Lord Ivar is the Queen’s third cousin once removed, their union marked the first gay royal wedding, temporarily stealing the show from even Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and model Kayla Rae Reid, who met on Instagram, actually wed back in January. Seeing as that ceremony was secret, this September, they decided to do it all over again, this time at a ranch in Palm Springs.
The Blonde Salad’s Chiara Ferragni married Italian rapper Fedez on Saturday, September 1, 2018, in Italy, after a weekend of elaborate events. For the actual ceremony, Ferragni wore Dior Haute Couture, and the house’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri was reportedly in attendance. She changed into a more playful gown after the ceremony, and shared a closer look at both ensembles on Instagram.
Vincent Cassel, 52, headed to a city hall in southwestern France to marry the 21-year-old model Tina Kunakey. They’ve already landed a magazine cover together, and Cassel has already addressed their age difference by declaring, “I’m very much in love and sure we are going to make babies.”
The Danish model Caroline Brasch Nielsen and her now husband Frederik Bille Brahe, a chef, took over the canals of Copenhagen for a day in August for a ceremony complete with sunflowers and their pet border collie.
The model Emily DiDonato headed for the mountains of Colorado to marry the financier Kyle Peterson, just four years after they met by sitting next to each other on a plane DiDonato had boarded for an Australian Vogue cover shoot.
Tauheed Epps, aka 2 Chainz, and Kesha Ward—seen here with their three children, Heaven, Harmony, and Halo—took over the ridiculously over-the-top Versace Mansion for a ceremony that drew the likes of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, the latter of whom caused a scene when he showed up wearing socks and sandals.
Before heading off to honeymoon in Spain, House of Cards star Robin Wright—who divorced Sean Penn in 2010—quietly married her Clement Giraudet, the head of VIP relations at Saint Laurent, in a quiet, largely social media-free wedding in France.
Seven years after meeting him at a club in Paris, the stylist and creative director Lolita Jacobs married Jean-Baptiste Talbourdet-Napoleone in Saint-Tropez, wearing a dress casually designed by her old pal Simon Porte Jacquemus.
Actress Hilary Swank and social venture entrepreneur Philip Schneider opted for a Burning Man-themed ceremony in the Redwoods this August, which included a silent disco.
Erin Wasson and her pals, who all just so happened to wear pink, took over Austin on the day that the model wed her partner of two years, the restaurateur Bart Tassy, in some very ruffly Vivienne Westwood.
Actress and eternal Chanel muse Vanessa Paradis tucked her ex Johnny Depp a bit further away into her past when she married the director Samuel Benchetrit in a small ceremony outside of Paris at the end of June. Their union turns out to have brought about one for her daughter Lily-Rose Depp and Benchetrit’s son Jules Benchetrit, who’s pretty much the Timothée Chalamet of France, too.
Terrence Thornton, aka Pusha T, married his partner of 11 years, Virginia Williams, in their hometown of Virginia Beach. The ceremony also happened to mark Dior Homme newbie Kim Jones‘s first foray into bridal design.
In case you didn’t know that her new husband, Karl Cook, is an equestrian, he and the actress Kaley Cuoco took care to hold their wedding at a horse stable in San Diego and wed beneath a giant feathered and floral horseshoe. (They also invited miniature ponies to join in on the festivities.)
Model and artist Myla Dalbesio painstakingly tracked down a lavender wedding dress just like her late mother’s to marry Nathan Hageman at a ceremony on the beach in Tulum.
Before she put her hair in a ponytail and switched into her cozier Tadashi Shoji jumpsuit to celebrate, Cuoco wore a lacy Reem Acra gown and cape to marry Cook.
