Location, Location, Location star Kirstie Allsopp has married her partner Ben Andersen after 21 years together. The pair exchanged vows in a secret ceremony inside the Love Actually chapel
Kirstie Allsopp, the star of Location, Location, Location, has tied the knot with her long-term partner Ben Andersen. The 53 year old TV presenter and the property tycoon have been together for 21 years after first meeting at a party in 2004, and share two sons, Bay and Oscar.
Kirstie is also a stepmother to Ben’s children from his previous marriage. Despite previously stating that she was “happily unmarried”, the couple decided to make their relationship official after more than two decades together. Kirstie revealed that the pair surprised their guests with a wedding ceremony at Grosvenor Chapel in London’s Mayfair, which features in the film Love Actually as where Keira Knightley and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s characters say ‘I do’.
Kirstie and Ben kept their wedding plans under wraps, with many guests believing they were attending a 64th birthday party for Ben. Due to the secret wedding planning and short notice, some people were unable to attend, including Kirstie’s Channel 4 co-star Phil Spencer, 55.
The location of their nuptials also had a special significance for Kirstie, as it was it where a memorial service for her late father, Charles Henry Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, took place following his death last year.
She told the Daily Mail: “On Thursday, Ben and I were married at The Grosvenor Chapel, where my parents and grandparents were married, and where we celebrated my father’s life in June.
“We had with us a small group of close friends and family who only heard about the wedding on Monday.
“We already had a big party planned to mark Ben’s birthday, so most of our guests thought that’s what they were coming to celebrate, and we did just that, with lots of food, drink, and dancing and all my nephews and nieces running around, having a ball.”
The joyful news comes after Kirstie previously spoke about the pair’s decision to not marry. In January 2020, Kirstie discussed her long-term partnership without the need for marriage in a Daily Mail column: “Each to their own is my feeling. I’ve been with my partner for 16 years and have two children and two stepchildren and, like many of my friends, we are very happily unmarried.”
She also mentioned her admiration for her neighbours, Richard Curtis and Emma Freud, who were famously unwed for years before tying the knot in 2023: “I have no problem being a middle-aged girlfriend with an even older middle-aged boyfriend. And I have learnt from the very best, as we live next door to the most famous happily unmarried couple – Richard Curtis and Emma Freud.”