Sir David and Victoria Beckham were among the guests at Bath Abbey for the wedding of Adam Peaty, the swimmer, and Holly Ramsay, the daughter of the chef Gordon Ramsay, in a celebration that has been overshadowed by a bitter family feud.
Gordon and Holly Ramsay
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Peaty, 30, arrived with his five-year-old son, George. The Olympian’s own parents did not attend after falling out with the bride and groom.
Adam Peaty holding his son George’s hand
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Victoria Beckham, 51, wore one of her own designs, a teal satin gown that costs £1,290. She and her husband were accompanied by three of their four children: Romeo, 23, Cruz, 20, and Harper, 14.
Sir David and Victoria Beckham
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The bridesmaids, who included the bride’s sisters Megan and Tilly Ramsay and the groom’s sister Bethany Peaty, also wore long satin dresses from Victoria Beckham’s label.
Megan Ramsay, Bethany Peaty and Tilly Ramsay
PA
A crowd of about 400 people gathered outside the abbey to watch guests arrive. Among them was Abigail List, 46, who was visiting Bath for the day.
“I’m always interested in the bride, seeing the dress,” she said.
Although there have been some reports of frustration among local residents that the abbey was closed on Saturday, those gathered simply wished the couple a happy marriage.
Carol Warrener, 72, who works in a flower shop locally and lives just outside Bath, said: “We originally thought it was the 25th, but then we saw on Facebook it was today. Good luck to them. I just think we all wish them well.”
On the arched front entrance to the abbey, which seats 1,200, there were two towers of white roses and hydrangeas.
Three bouncers were stationed at the side door.
Other celebrity guests included the chefs Marcus Wareing and Angela Hartnett, as well as Sara Davies, the entrepreneur, Dragons’ Den star and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant. Davies and the groom both competed in the dance competition’s 19th series.
Marcus Wareing
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Preparations for the wedding have been overshadowed by a rift between the couple and most of Peaty’s family, including his mother Caroline and father Mark, who stayed home in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. Their daughter, 32, was the only member of the Peaty family expected to attend the ceremony.
The groom’s mother told the Daily Mail: “I don’t think they understand how much they have hurt me; it’s as if they have cut my heart out. This is the first Christmas that I’ve not had my family together — my family is broken … because of the wedding.”
The row was sparked by the hen do, to which Caroline Peaty was not invited. Her sister, Louise Williams, criticised the bride publicly over the decision to exclude her future mother-in-law.
The bride with her mother and Victoria Beckham on her hen do
Caroline Peaty, who turned 60 last week, had initially hoped to watch the wedding at the back of the abbey but said: “Me going would just cause even more of a storm and I don’t want to ruin his wedding day. I wanted to be there quietly to watch him get married, but that can’t happen now.”
Adam Peaty grew up in Uttoxeter, the youngest of four children. His mother managed a nursery and his father was a bricklayer; the couple would squeeze in ferrying their son to training sessions and competitions around their work.
A gold medallist at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics and a silver medallist in Paris, Peaty told The Times last year that his deepening faith and his relationship had brought him a newfound peace.
Competing in the 4x100m medley relay in Paris
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Raised as a Catholic, he now attends an evangelical church, and said that while he used to feel “like a god in the pool” he has now found the real God. “I’d rather have my faith and my relationship with Jesus and come second than have gold,” he said of his performance in Paris.
The athlete, who had his son with a previous partner, the Welsh artist Eirianedd Munro, went public with his new relationship in June 2023. He told The Times that he wants more children.
Gordon Ramsay had inspired him to “be successful”, he said, adding that the Ramsays were all “incredible people … very supportive, very welcoming, very loving … the family values are very similar to mine and the way that Holly has been brought up is something that I see in her, and is just so attractive for me”.