Before Andy Murray marries Kim Sears, we look at the best sports weddings
Posh & Becks and the Royals tie the knot!
Friday 10 April 2015 15:42, UK
Andy Murray and long-time partner Kim Sears will marry this weekend at Dunblane Castle in the British No 1’s hometown in the sporting world’s biggest wedding of the year.
The ceremony will be a typically humble affair without any famous faces or glossy magazine photo-shoots, and Murray’s tennis rivals and mentor Sir Alex Ferguson will not attend.
We thought back to other sporting weddings that weren’t quite as low key…
David & Victoria Beckham
Still among the world’s top power couples after 16 years of marriage, David Beckham’s sporting and cultural career skyrocketed after a lavish wedding to the Spice Girls’ Victoria Adams.
Taking place at Luttrellstown Castle in Ireland in 1999, their special day showed none of Murray’s subtleness. The ceremony was reported to have cost £500,000 with the remaining Spice Girls and Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton attending.
Since their union, while Victoria has swapped the music business for fashion, her husband’s football career transcended sport as he became one of the most well-known public figures in the world.
Beckham’s football legacy encompassed a further four years in Manchester before collecting trophies at Real Madrid, AC Milan, LA Galaxy and Paris St-Germain as well as forging a reputation with his wife as one of the world’s wealthiest partnerships.
Tom Brady & Gisele Bundchen
An American football hero marrying a top supermodel may sound like something from Hollywood movies but it is entirely accurate in the case of Brady and Gisele.
Appropriately for a couple with such soaring fame and success, just one wedding wouldn’t suffice so they enjoyed a pair of extravagant ceremonies in 2009.
First in California and then Costa Rica, the all-time gridiron great married the world’s highest earning supermodel to immediately elevate themselves into the top echelon of famous couples in two events where even the attending pets wore outlandish jewellery.
While his wife continues to dominate catwalks, not to mention making an attention-grabbing appearance at the World Cup in her native Brazil, Brady won his fourth Super Bowl with the New England Patriots in February and is certain of a place in the sport’s history books.
Mike Tindall & Zara Phillips
Rugby royalty joined the Royal family in 2011 just three months after Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials.
An athlete in her own right, Phillips married the former England captain wearing a tiara gifted to the Queen on her wedding.
With no glitzy magazine deals anywhere to be seen, fellow rugby player Iain Balshaw was the best man as Tindall and Phillips tied the knot before continuing with their elite sports careers.
A year later, Phillips won a silver medal for equestrian in the London Olympics while Tindall would captain the Barbarians against England at Twickenham.
Ben Foden & Una Healy
Taking a page out of Beckham’s book, Foden is said to have spotted his future wife singing on television.
With her fellow Saturdays bandmates as bridesmaids, Healy married the rugby full-back three years ago before releasing one further album plus a greatest hits compilation, while Northampton Saints’ Foden is battling to be fit for England’s World Cup squad.
Lleyton & Bec Hewitt
Murray and Sears can look at a host of tennis weddings for inspiration, including Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, but Australia’s favourite couple stand out from the rest.
The Home & Away actress had co-star Ada Nicodemou as bridesmaid a decade ago, and while Hewitt has been unable to add to his pair of Grand Slams after marriage, he is established as one of Australia’s top tennis exports.
Now based in the Bahamas, Hewitt plans infrequent returns to the court before putting away his racket forever after the next Australian Open.
