British Royal Family Celebrates Their First Gay Wedding As Ivar Mountbatten Weds

With the British royal family’s traditions steeped in ancient history, news that they would be celebrating the first gay marriage from within was met with thunderous applause. The news was announced in June this year that Lord Ivar Alexander Michael Mountbatten, Queen Elizabeth II’s third cousin, would be marrying his partner James Coyle later in the summer.

And on September 22, that wedding came to pass on a cold and wet British day, according to Stuff. The couple is the first ever same-sex pair to marry in the monarch’s family.

Lord Mountbatten and Coyle have been together for two years, but their history isn’t as simple as that. Mountbatten was previously married to Lady Penny Mountbatten, with whom he has three daughters, before he came out as gay in 2016.

Royal Central reported that Lady Mountbatten actually gave her ex-husband away at the private ceremony hosted in Devon. She has been openly supportive of her former husband’s relationship with Coyle.

“I loved Penny when we were married, as I still do very much. I never thought this would happen. It’s brilliant, but I never thought I’d marry a man,” Lord Mountbatten said.

He took to his Instagram account to share special photos of their big day.

Lord Mountbatten is a “great-great-great grandchild of Queen Victoria and a direct descendant of Catherine the Great of Russia. In addition to Her Majesty, he is also cousin to Prince Philip and godfather to Lady Louise Windsor.”

No members of the royal family proper were in attendance at the wedding, although it was stated at the time that the Earl and Countess of Wessex had prior commitments that would have rendered them unable to attend.

Despite being the first member of the extended royal family to marry a member of the same sex, Lord Mountbatten’s relationship does not raise eyebrows in the UK. Stuff shared that a census in 2016 showed that over 60 percent of people in Britain have no problem with same-sex relationships. Gay marriage was legalized in the UK in 2014, with the exception of Northern Ireland, where only civil partnerships are available to gay couples.

According to Jonathan Thomas, the publisher of Anglotopia.net, Lord Mountbatten’s distance from the throne also means that he did not have to contend with the constitution in order to marry Coyle. The constitution still states that the first six people in line to the throne must ask the ruling monarch for permission before they may marry.

Nevertheless, Thomas feels Lord Mountbatten and Coyle have certainly broken new ground for the royal family.

“Change happens a lot around the edges, and as people further from the center make changes, these [changes] will increase toward the center.”