Wedding Bell: Royal Family Prepare For First Ever Gay Wedding [Photos]

Wedding Bell: Royal Family Prepare For First Ever Gay Wedding [Photos]The Royal family will be witnessing yet another Royal wedding, as Queen Elizabeth’s cousin Lord Ivar Mountbatten has announced that he will be marrying his partner, James Coyle, in a small ceremony in a chapel on his Devon estate.

This is the first same-sex marriage in the extended royal family, according to the Daily Mail, as it was gathered that Mountbatten was previously married to a woman, Penny, for 16 years, and they have three children together.

The exes are still on great terms, though—she’s going to give him away at the wedding, which has the full blessing of the family. “It was the girls’ idea,” she told The Daily Mail. “It makes me feel quite emotional. I’m really very touched.”

In the interview, Penny says she knew her ex-husband identified as bisexual before they married.

“I could sense he was quite relieved sharing his secret, particularly with someone who was so receptive,” she says. “Because I have lots of gay friends and cousins, I’m very open-minded about sexuality. He seemed like he’d offloaded a huge burden. It definitely made us closer from that moment onwards because he trusted me.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail , he said:

“I had a really happy childhood but I could never tell my parents I was gay. Where I grew up, gay men were called poofs, queers, everything derogatory under the sun.

“In 15, 20 years’ time people will struggle to understand how we came to be having such conversations. People will look back and say, ‘What’s the big deal?’ But for our generation it was.”

As for the upcoming wedding, Mountbatten says he wants to do it for his partner James.

“He hasn’t been married… For me, what’s interesting is I don’t need to get married because I’ve been there, done that and have my wonderful children,” he explains. “But I’m pushing it because I think it’s important for him…James hasn’t had the stable life I have.”

“I want to give you that,” he told Coyle.

“It’s a very modern marriage,” Coyle continued in the Mail interview. “There was no proposal, just an acceptance of this great love. He cares. I care. The girls are very accepting.”