Royal Family Set To Hold First-Ever Royal Gay Wedding In UK

Lord Ivar Mountbatten, cousin to Queen Elizabeth, will wed James Coyle at a private chapel on his country estate in Devon this summer, marking the royal family’s first-ever gay marriage.
Ivar, who came out in 2016, years after he and his ex-wife Penny divorced, told the Daily Mail that while he didn’t feel like he needed to get married “because I’ve been there, done that, and have my wonderful children,” he said he “really wanted to do it for James.”

“James hasn’t had the stable life I have,” he continued. Turning to his husband-to-be, he added, “I want to be able to give you that.”
While describing their engagement, James told the publication “it’s a very modern marriage,” explaining that “there was no proposal, just an acceptance of this great love.”

In fact, in an extra-special modern twist, Penny will be the one to give her her ex-husband away —an idea she says their three daughters Ella, 22, Alix, 20, and Luli, 15 came up with.

“It makes me feel quite emotional. I’m really very touched,” she said, adding that while her role in the wedding might strike some as odd, she and James “have got on from the first 10 seconds of meeting each other.”

“Ivar is so much more relaxed these days. He’s so much kinder,” she shared with the Daily Mail. “He probably wasn’t even aware that by keeping his sexuality a secret it was really quite tormenting him. Now it’s ‘out,’ he’s a completely different person. Everybody says they’ve never seen him happier.”