Just over a month after Prince Harry married
American actress Meghan Markle, the extended
British royal family will have its first same-sex
wedding.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten will marry his partner,
James Coyle.
Mountbatten is the queen’s third cousin
once removed, and the great-great-great grandson
of Queen Victoria. However, his family name
gives him a higher profile in British aristocratic
circles; he is the great-nephew of Earl Mountbatten
of Burma, the World War II naval commander
who led Allied military forces in southeast
Asia.
Two years ago, Lord Ivar created quite a stir
when he confessed to having struggled with
his sexuality throughout most of that 16-year
marriage. Finally, he admitted he was gay
after finding contentment with his new love
James Coyle, whom he met in the swish Swiss
ski resort of Verbier.
“We'll be pronounced partners in marriage,
but the ceremony itself will be very small,”
Mountbatten, 55, revealed in a family interview.
He divorced his ex-wife Penny, with whom he
has three daughters, in 2011. She will give
her former husband away at the event.
“It was the girls' idea,” Penny said,
referring to her daughters. “It makes me
feel quite emotional. I'm really very touched.”
The wedding will take place on Mountbatten’s
Bridwell Park country estate in Devon, southwest
England, this summer.
The former geologist and chicken farmer has
been running the historic house and its grounds
as an upscale wedding venue but it is currently
for sale at $6.5 million.
It is not clear whether any senior royals
will attend the ceremony.
In a reflection of social change, royal attitudes
to homosexuality have progressed since 1960
when Jeremy Fry, Lord Snowdon’s choice of
best man for his wedding to Princess Margaret,
was vetoed after it was discovered he had
a conviction for a “minor homosexual offense.”
Harry and Meghan, who wed on May 19, have
made clear their support of gay rights, reportedly
telling gay delegates from across Britain’s
former empire, the Commonwealth that they
would put LGBT issues at the front of their
work.
