Singer Rachel Stevens' former husband tied the knot with his art dealer new wife this weekend three years after the singer ended their marriage. The S Club 7 star split from Alex Bourne, her husband of 12 years, in 2022 after she fell for her professional skating partner Brendyn Hatfield on ITV show Dancing on Ice. This weekend, he had his happy ending as he married Lily in a romantic ceremony in East Sussex.
She helped the property tycoon get over his split after Rachel, 46, announced she had separated from her childhood sweetheart, just one month shy of their 13-year anniversary. The newly weds got engaged after he popped the question on Hampstead Heath last summer. Rachel and Alex's two daughters, Amelie, 12, and Minnie, nine, were bridesmaids. Lily posted on Instagram thanking their guests and wrote: "A little more from our big day. Still on cloud 9. Words can't begin to describe our happiness. Thank you to all of our family and friends for being there on our special day.".
While Rachel admits that making the decision to end her marriage was tough, she wanted to show their kids that there is more to life than the picture-perfect family. Rachel said last year: “There were a lot of fears and lots of questioning… ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ I was in turmoil. We, as parents, show our children how to be happy, how to love, how to communicate. “It’s not easy to navigate, but it’s life. It’s showing kids there’s more than just getting married and having kids. We’ve grown up thinking we have to conform and it isn’t like that. Our generation are breaking that barrier.” When Rachel and 47-year-old Alex split, they were determined to have an amicable divorce that put their kids at the heart of all the decisions. They even had therapy about how to break the news to their girls.
Speaking at the Happy Place festival, Rachel said: “I remember the day so clearly… we were both so scared about telling them but we planned it. We were advised to do it in the morning when the kids weren’t tired. It’s something you muddle through but we were as planned as we could be.”. Rachel was worried about how the divorce would affect her children, but knew she wanted to reassure them and make them feel safe. “Alex and I are very aligned on that,” she said. “It was all about them and making them feel we are there and we’re not going anywhere.
“It’s definitely a process and it’s taken a lot of navigating – and will for some time. Whatever is going on between us, we try to keep as separate as we can. We never speak badly of each other. We’re going to make mistakes along the way but we’re doing our best.”. Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.
