OK! VINTAGE
ISSUE 736 – 3 AUGUST 2010
Ten years ago, Michelle Heaton said “I do” to Hugh Hanley in a romantic Bahamas ceremony, covered exclusively by OK! The couple married on July 19th, which is also Michelle’s birthday, so they have double the reason to celebrate the anniversary of their big day!
Back in 2010, the couple – who are now parents to Faith, eight, and AJ, six – opted for a low-key event. “I really wanted an intimate affair with my Hughie,” explained Michelle, who turns 41 this week. Four years earlier, she had married first husband Andy Scott-lee, but later regretted the elaborate ceremony. “Things definitely got carried away. And I was an absolute cow – about everything,” she stated.
Personal trainer Hugh, now 41, admitted they both “cried buckets” during the wedding, which took place on a boardwalk on the picturesque beach. And Michelle revealed that it didn’t all go to plan as gale force winds almost stopped their dream outdoor ceremony. “The palm trees on the beach were literally bent over with the wind,” she explained. “I did think I was going to burst into tears but I rang Hugh, who was getting ready on the other side of the resort, and we just decided to go ahead and do it.” At the time, she described herself as the “luckiest girl in the world” to be marrying Hugh. Since their wedding, they’ve had to endure some unexpected hardships. Michelle underwent a double mastectomy in 2012 and hysterectomy in 2014 after discovering she was a carrier of the mutated BRCA2 gene. The latter operation meant she could no longer have children, and she went through the menopause in her thirties.
When OK! caught up with the couple in 2018, Hugh said, “When we got married we didn’t expect the roller coaster that’s come our way.”
“I often feel bad when I look back at the person he married because that’s not the person that’s here now,” Michelle admitted, but her besotted husband quickly replied, “You’re better now than when we got married.”