After choosing a laid-back bridal outfit for her elopement with her second husband Mark Cassidy, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Carol McGiffin opted for an equally unconventional outfit for her first wedding.
Back in 1991, the Loose Women star married Chris Evans following a volatile three-year relationship. After threatening to break up with the radio DJ, she accepted his proposal and they set the date for 17 September, which Chris deliberately chose in order to combine their wedding reception with the launch party for his new show, TV Mayhem.
Carol and Chris tied the knot in Camden with the bride stepping out in a black pencil skirt – a departure from the classic bridal white gown most choose on their big day. "It was quite possibly the most comically tragic moment of my entire life," Carol wrote in the Daily Mail.
In a rare comment about her former marriage, Carol told her Loose Women co-stars: "Anyone who thinks I married him for his money, that’s nonsense because I had more money than him at the time.
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"He was nothing without me, nothing. I’m glad it all went a bit wrong. I persevered with it and I was determined to make it work."
How did Carol McGiffin and Chris Evans meet?
© Stephen Barker/REX/ShutterstockTV producer Carol was working for Music Box in 1988 when she met Chris, and she described the radio star as very confident.
"He came into the office, all legs and bright orange hair - but it was the oh-so-confident swagger that got my attention," she wrote in her autobiography.
Despite Chris moving into Carol's London apartment as a lodger, their friendship didn't turn romantic until he was living in Belsize Park and they enjoyed a drunken trip to the pub. "After that we became embroiled in a relationship of sorts. I was 30, he was 24. We did almost everything together and laughed so much."
© Ken McKay/ITV/REX/ShutterstockCarol later explained on Loose Women that part of her attraction to Chris was his ambition. "But just thinking back there, I remember when I met my first husband, I remember thinking I was more attracted to him because he was so good at what he did," Carol said, adding: "I sort of overlooked everything else that normally I wouldn't go for."
Why did Carol McGiffin and Chris Evans split?
Carol revealed the couple argued a lot in their relationship and recalled a particularly bad one that ended with Chris throwing a mirror over the balcony of their apartment on St Patrick's Day in 1992.
Chris said on The Big Breakfast in May that year: "R.I.P the marriage," and the pair parted ways in 1993 following a disagreement over their Porche. They agreed to divorce in 1997, with Chris announcing the news hours later at the Comedy Awards, and it was finalised the following year.
Who is Carol McGiffin married to?
© GettyFollowing the couple's divorce, Chris was married to Billie Piper for six years before tying the knot with Natasha Shishmanian. Carol found love with Mark Cassidy and they got engaged in 2008, the same year that they met. They eloped to Bangkok in Thailand ten years later without any of their friends and family in attendance.
First photos of her big day revealed Carol opted for a laid-back outfit including black and white striped trousers, a white blouse and a denim jacket. Her husband looked equally as casual in white shorts and a blue T-shirt as the newlyweds posed in front of a series of heart garlands holding white flowers and what we assume is the marriage certificate.
© InstagramThey both did an outfit change for their wedding dinner, with Mark choosing a blue shirt and cream trousers, while Carol looked elegant in a pink maxi dress and denim jacket.
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