OUR BIG OUR GREEK WEDDING
The ‘Neighbours’ star shares a special day two decades in the making
On the romantic Greek island of Mykonos, under a cloudless blue sky at a tiny whitewashed church, Australian music icon Ross Wilson celebrated his 70th birthday by renewing marriage vows with Tania Gogos-Wilson, his partner of 20 years. “It was the big, fat Greek wedding that wasn’t,” laughs Wilson’s stepdaughter, model and Neighbours star Olympia Valance, 24, who jetted to the Aegean with 30 close family and friends to celebrate with the couple on Sept. 24. “It turned into quite a joke, because everyone kept saying, ‘It’s not a wedding, it’s not a wedding,’ but there we were, all dressed up in front of a beautiful church with a celebrant, a reception and a big wedding party.” For the wedding that wasn’t, Wilson —frontman and songwriter of 1970s rockers Daddy Cool and 1980s band Mondo Rock— exchanged new rings with manager Gogos-Wilson, 52, who became his bride 19 years ago. ( Wilson is currently working on a Mondo Rock reunion, coinciding with the re-release of the band’s catalogue). “They are obviously still madly in love with each other,” says Olympia, who was recently linked to One Direction’s Niall Horan. “It’s nice to see people who are as strong as ever after being together for so long. I was just bawling, we all were.”
The actress celebrated her mother’s Greek heritage in a goddess-style dress by Melbourne couturier Con Ilio, who also designed her mother’s gown. “There’s something about Greece,” says Olympia. “Both Mum and I were born in Australia, but when we are over there, it really feels like our homeland.” As for half-sister Holly, 34, she sent her love from London (see box). Although Holly wanted to be there, “she was heavily pregnant at the time,” says Olympia, who has followed in Holly’s Neighbours footsteps and whose “modern family” includes eight half-siblings from three mothers and two fathers.
The party then adjourned to Niko’s Taverna for a meal, before settling at beachside Scorpios for dancing under the stars. At Niko’s “one of the waiters dropped a tray of glasses,” says Olympia. “In Greece, smashing something is good luck so we were all like,‘ Yes!’ ”
“They are obviously still madly in love” —Olympia Valance