Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, who is on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch this weekend (November 24), previously kept his marriage to wife Michelle a secret for years – for a pretty baffling reason.
Gyles married wife Michelle back in 1973 and exchanged vows at Marylebone Register Office. However, they didn’t tell their parents until two years later.
Gyles Brandreth on marrying wife Michelle in secret
Gyles and his wife tied the knot with just two witnesses present, one being late Hi-De-Hi star Simon Cadell, who was Brandreth’s best friend.
“It was a private thing. If you are getting married it’s about the person you are marrying, it’s about the relationship. For me it’s not about the party,” he explained when quizzed over his secret nuptials by the Daily Mail in 2011.
This Morning regular Gyles, who is still married to Michelle, revealed he has no regrets over keeping their big day under wraps. However, the pair only decided to tell their parents when they were expecting their first child.
“Our parents knew we were a couple because we were living together in a flat in Baker Street. But we agreed we wanted the wedding to be a private matter,” he said.
“The biggest and loudest weddings don’t always produce the happiest marriages. Look at Charles and Di.”
Gyles and Michelle share three children — son Benet and daughters Aphra and Saethryd.
Private weddings have become ‘something of a family tradition’
This wasn’t the only private wedding to take place in his family, however. Gyles’ father Charles and mother Alice chose to elope weeks after they met. They also got married in secret at Marylebone, with a local flower seller and a cleaner as their witnesses.
“Because my parents did it that way I felt able to do it that way and indeed some of my children got married in that way,” Gyles said, admitting that private weddings have become “something of a family tradition”.
His daughter, Saethryd, also got married privately to her husband Joseph at Marylebone Register Office in 2005 while Gyles and Michelle “had a lunch at Pizza Express”.
Admitting they knew about the wedding, he also was aware they wanted to keep it private.
Read more: This Morning’s Gyles Brandreth shares his guilt over death of friend Rod Hull: ‘I killed a man’
Catch Gyles on Sunday Brunch on November 24 at 9.30am on Channel 4.
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They’ve been married for more than 40 years now
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