15 NOVEMBER 2002
One of the Hollywood's most handsome screen stars is officially off the market. Pretty Woman star Richard Gere has quietly married his longtime love, former Bond girl Carey Lowell, a spokesperson for the couple confirmed on Thursday.

The ultra-private nuptials, held outdoors in the grounds of their weekend home in Pound Ridge, New York, was as low-key as they come. The only guests, reports The New York Post columnist Cindy Adams, were the couple's two-year-old son Homer, and the bride's daughter Hannah, from her prior marriage to actor Griffin Dunne.

After tying the knot, the newlyweds apparently let friends and family into the secret, phoning them to announce the happy news.

Richard and the 41-year-old Law And Order actress began dating in 1995, sparking a long-term romance that would be kept very much out of the spotlight. Five years later they welcomed a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was named after the couple's fathers and the Tibetan word for "fearless", a nod to Richard's Buddhist beliefs.

The wedding marks the second marriage for the American Gigolo star, whose first wife was supermodel Cindy Crawford. The high-profile pair divorced after three years in 1994.