After 21 years of being ‘fortunately single’, Kirstie Allsopp and her limelight-shunning boyfriend have lastly tied the knot.
Final week, the couple – who share Bay, 18, and Oscar, 16 – married in a romantic ceremony on the Grosvenor Chapel in Mayfair, which was the setting for Love Truly’s wedding ceremony scene again in 2003.
Nonetheless, the setting additionally has an emotional connections for the bride and was the place a memorial service for her beloved father, former Christie’s chairman Charles Allsopp, sixth Baron Hindlip, was held final June. It was additionally the place Kirstie’s mother and father and grandparents held their wedding ceremony celebrations.
In a bid to maintain their nuptials below wraps, the newlyweds reportedly saved the marriage secret from their 70 company till the final minute and informed them they have been celebrating Ben’s sixty fourth birthday.
And whereas it could effectively have raised eyebrows amongst family members, this distinctive strategy to wedding ceremony planning may be very a lot in character for the fiercely-private couple – whose love story has been something however standard.
The couple have been launched by Ben’s ex-wife Theresa, who attended the identical unique faculty as Kirstie, in early 2004 at a celebration for potential Tory MP Orlando Fraser.
Shortly after they met, the self-made property tycoon informed Kirstie, now 53, that he by no means needed to marry once more – however confessed that he needed to spend the remainder of their lives collectively
Kirstie Allsopp and Ben Andersen not too long ago tied the knot in a secret ceremony in London’s Mayfair. Right here, they’re photographed on the pink carpet to the UK Premiere of The Chronicles of Narnia with their sons in June 2008
The couple – who share sons Bay, 18, and Oscar, 16 – married in a romantic ceremony on the Grosvenor Chapel in Mayfair, which was the setting for Love Truly ‘s wedding ceremony scene again in 2003. Pictured: Kirstie Allsopp and Ben Andersen attend a Tatler journal social gathering.
Pictured: Ben Andersen and Kirstie Allsopp seen on a snowboarding vacation in Switzerland with associates in March 2024
Though they’ve been collectively for 20 years, the couple not often seem in public and, till now, have solely been pictured as soon as having fun with a ski vacation in recent times.
Final yr, Kirstie – who has established herself as a housing market professional – revealed her accomplice has even purchased household houses with out consulting her first on two separate events.
Right here FEMAIL delves into the highs and lows of Kirstie and Ben’s relationship – from their unconventional begin to their blended household struggles.
How Kirstie was ‘not girlfriend materials’
Earlier than Kirstie met Ben, the TV star had been unlucky-in-love and described as ‘not girlfriend materials’ by one of many males she had dated.
After deciding to not go to college, Kirstie – who’s the daughter of Charles Allsopp, the sixth Lord Hindlip, and his late spouse Fiona – bought a job working with inside designer Nicky Haslam.
She beforehand informed Stylist journal: ‘Nobody was serious about me in my twenties.
‘I had “please marry me” tattooed on my brow. It was so important to me to get married and have kids.’
Pictured: Kirstie Allsopp across the time she first began filming Location, Location, Location in 2000
Kirstie was launched to Ben (pictured collectively), a self-made multi-millionaire, by his ex-wife Theresa, who had attended personal faculty Bedales similtaneously Kirstie
What’s extra, Kirstie stated in an interview with The Mirror that she was ‘bloody-minded and ‘gauche’ on the time, which took its toll on her relationships.
She defined: ‘One chap stated, “Kirstie, you’ll make somebody a unbelievable spouse however you aren’t girlfriend materials.” I saved going for handsome s***s.’
In 2000, Kirstie began internet hosting Location, Location, Location with Phil Spencer. Though her profession was sky-rocketing, the TV host was involved in regards to the prospect of getting a household.
Talking to Lady journal in 2014, she defined: ‘I might have had a toddler on my own.
‘I had deliberate to so I had a date in thoughts that I used to be going to attempt for a child and had lined up a few individuals who I’d requested if I might have their youngster and so they’d stated sure.’
Accused of ‘stealing’ newly-separated Ben
Pictured: Ben Anderson’s ex-wife Theresa Garnett, who attended the identical faculty as Kirstie Allsopp
In early 2004, Kirstie attended a celebration for a potential Conservative MP and ended up assembly her accomplice Ben Andersen.
On the time, Ben and his ex-wife Theresa – who share sons Oron and Hal – had solely been separated for 5 months.
In an interview with the Night Customary in 2012, Kirstie shut down any rumours that she had ‘stolen’ Ben from her former faculty pal, who additionally attended Bedales.
She stated: ‘I didn’t [steal him]. I met Ben at a celebration for a potential Tory MP pal of mine, Orlando Fraser.
‘Ben’s spouse, whom I knew in school and whom he was already separated from, launched us.’
Ben had quietly amassed a £20m fortune after leaving faculty at 15 and offered properties to Stella McCartney, Gillian Anderson and artwork supplier Jay Koplin.
An insider informed the Mail on the time: ‘Each in enterprise and in private relationships, he’s a domineering character.
‘He additionally hates to lose. He needed the proper marriage and it was all a part of his ambition to change into a Tory peer.’
Kirstie informed the Mirror in 2009: ‘After all individuals fall in love with different individuals’s husbands however fortunately after I met Ben and fell in love with him, he was now not anyone else’s husband.’
Commenting on the cut up, Theresa informed the Mail on the time: ‘I really like Ben very a lot and I’m terrifically unhappy that our marriage is over.’
Ben’s refusal to marry once more
KirstieAllsopp and Ben Andersen pictured attending a e-book social gathering in Kensington Palace. The couple have been collectively for 20 years
Not lengthy into their relationship, Kirstie stated Ben informed her that he has no plans to marry once more.
In her interview with the Mirror, the TV host recalled how Ben informed her 10 days after they’d met that he did not need to tie the knot however he want to have kids with Kirstie and develop previous collectively.
She added: ‘It was nearly like a proposal. I felt I needed to say OK. Ben is a tremendous one that I really like very a lot.’
Elsewhere in her interview with the Night Customary, Kirstie mirrored on how she by no means thought she would have kids out of wedlock.
The star stated: ‘Ben has been married earlier than and so I do not assume he is in a rush to do it once more. Our youngster is our dedication to one another.’
What’s extra, Kirstie has additionally beforehand stated that she has taken a ‘if it ain’t broke, do not repair it’ strategy to their relationship.
In 2000, Kirstie began internet hosting Location, Location, Location with Phil Spencer. Though her profession was sky-rocketing, the TV host was involved in regards to the prospect of getting a household
She informed Lady: ‘I’ve at all times stated the identical factor: there’s each chance that at some point we’ll get married, if just for sensible causes. However we’re very comfortable as we’re.’
Writing for FEMAIL in January 2020, Kirstie defined that she has by no means needed the eye that comes with being a bride.
She stated: ‘I’ve no drawback being a middle-aged girlfriend with a good older middle-aged boyfriend. And I’ve learnt from the easiest, as we stay subsequent door to probably the most well-known fortunately single couple — Richard Curtis and Emma Freud.
‘Richard even jokes that he needed to make the movie 4 Weddings And A Funeral to elucidate to his mom why he has by no means married.
‘There’s one other upside to not being married. I do not need the eye of being a bride. I am not a fan of the staggering, unending self-absorption of ‘my large day’. Have you ever seen how not often you hear ‘our large day’?’
How Kirstie ‘lets accomplice take the lead’
Though Kirstie and Ben not often seem in public collectively, the TV star has given perception into their long-term relationship by dispensing recommendation for long-lasting love.
Kirstie Allsopp (pictured) attended a celebration for a potential Conservative MP and ended up assembly her accomplice Ben Andersen in 2004
Kirstie informed Simple Residing journal in November 2011 that she typically lets Ben take the lead on choices across the household’s schedule.
She stated: ‘When you do what your accomplice prefers, he’s comfortable and the youngsters have a good time too.
‘Your relationship together with your accomplice will final far longer than your kids are going to be at dwelling. When you let that relationship slide when your kids are little, it would disintegrate and also you may not have the ability to rescue it. So on the weekend I let Ben select what we do.’
‘The factor is, what Ben needs to do on the weekend is what the boys need to do, so I just about let him resolve.
‘It’s bought nothing to do with feminism, it’s to do with consideration, Happiness is about making the individuals that you just love comfortable. I do put Ben first, however he additionally places me first.’
Pictured: Kirstie Allsopp together with her sons attending the opening of Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park in 2021
Months later, Kirstie additionally suggested ladies do not broach topics with their different halves once they’re hungry.
She defined: ‘Males are totally different from ladies, they’ve totally different metabolic charges. My mum at all times used to say “Decide your moments… make certain they’re fed”. They will’t cope in any other case.
‘We’re not at a degree the place individuals are acknowledging that women and men are totally different and that, if you wish to have a cheerful relationship, it’s a must to perceive these variations.’
Struggles of being a step-mother
The star has additionally beforehand spoken about how passionately she threw herself into being a step-mother to Ben’s sons Orion and Hal.
Kirstie Allsopp pictured together with her sons Bay Atlas and Oscar Hercules at a kids’s tea social gathering in London’s Westfield in 2015
Writing for the Day by day Mail in 2021, Kirstie defined: ‘I can actually say I’ve put extra thought and energy into my relationship with my stepsons than anything in my life.’
Describing how step-mothers get a ‘rum deal’, Kirstie continued: ‘From Hansel and Gretel to Cinderella and even Baroness Schraeder in The Sound Of Music, the stepmother is habitually depicted as some previous hag who needs nothing however evil on her stepchildren.
‘We don’t fill our kids’s books with ghastly dentists or medical doctors, as a result of we all know making our children petrified of them can be damaging. So why can we enable this stereotype about step-parenthood to persist?
‘We bought such a foul rap as a result of, prior to now, if you happen to had a stepmother it normally meant your mom had died, and your father might have married another person, who, likely, had additionally misplaced a partner and had kids of her personal to look out for.’
Elsewhere, Kirstie opened up about her co-parenting relationship with Theresa and is grateful that they’ve at all times had a ‘good relationship’, regardless of the TV star generally taking a ‘harder’ strategy.
Talking to the Day by day Mail’s Richard Eden final March, Kirstie stated that purchasing property with out consulting your different half was a optimistic register a relationship.
She added: ‘In case you are a real couple, and love one another, then you definately belief one another.’
And Kirstie says Anderson’s decision-making runs in her household. ‘My mom did it as effectively,’ the presenter says. ‘She as soon as purchased a home that my father hadn’t seen.’
Rom-com worthy wedding ceremony
Pictured: Kirstie Allsopp and Ben Andersen on their wedding ceremony day in London’s Mayfair final Thursday
Regardless of insisting he would by no means marry once more, Ben clearly not too long ago had a change of coronary heart.
For her wedding ceremony, Kirstie wore a beautiful gold sequin and tulle customised Oscar de la Renta gown she had purchased two weeks earlier.
The joyful 40-minute ceremony included the Beatles’ hit All You Want Is Love, which additionally featured in Richard Curtis’s Love Truly, and the hymn I Vow To Thee, My Nation.
Kirstie informed The Mail on Sunday the preparations have been so final minute and secretive that many necessary company – together with Phil Spencer, her Channel 4 co-host for greater than 20 years – have been unable to make it.
‘On Thursday, Ben and I have been married at The Grosvenor Chapel, the place my mother and father and grandparents have been married, and the place we celebrated my father’s life in June,’ she stated.
‘We had with us a small group of shut family and friends who solely heard in regards to the wedding ceremony on Monday.
‘We already had an enormous social gathering deliberate to mark Ben’s birthday, so most of our company thought that is what they have been coming to have fun, and we did simply that, with a lot of meals, drink, and dancing and all my nephews and nieces operating round, having a ball.
‘We did sing All You Want is Love. That was Ben’s thought; I’m an enormous Richard Curtis fan and have an authentic script from the film. I purchased my sparkly gown two weeks earlier than within the gross sales, and the beautiful women at Oscar de la Renta added sleeves, considering it was for an award ceremony.
Kirstie Allsopp wore a shocking gold sequin and tulle customised Oscar de la Renta gown she had purchased two weeks earlier
‘The flowers, the catering, the order of service and the lighting have been all completed by individuals I’ve labored with over time who saved all of it secret and put collectively a tremendous occasion at very quick discover, although due to that quick discover some beloved family and friends could not be there, together with Phil.’
The couple’s sons – alongside Ben’s older sons Hal and Orion from a earlier relationship – have been ushers. All 4 have been seen at an area wine bar earlier than the marriage, with Bay seen practising a speech exterior.
These attending the ceremony included Kirstie’s sisters, Sofie Fletcher and Natasha Morley, designer India Hicks and Kirstie’s cousin, former hedge fund boss Jamie Allsopp.
Kirstie determined to launch official footage, taken by celebrated photographer Catherine Bradley, to this newspaper after changing into conscious {that a} paparazzi photographer had been ready exterior the chapel.
‘I had hoped that we had pulled off an actual coup, a genuinely personal wedding ceremony within the metropolis we love, in a church related to my household, which additionally occurs to be the Love Truly church,’ she stated.
‘Sadly, regardless of my crafty plan, there was a paparazzi photographer exterior.
‘So, with the assistance of The Mail on Sunday, I’m releasing a number of footage of my very own, and if anybody else needs to make use of them please make a donation to the Grosvenor Chapel, which can quickly have fun 300 years of being on the centre of Mayfair.’ That may be completed by way of grosvenorchapel.org.uk.
