Queen’s cousin Lord Ivar to star in Bear Grylls reality TV show
ARISTOCRATIC lives were once marked by glittering balls, riding to hounds and tea with the monarch. These days it’s a starring appearance on reality television.
Following in the dainty footsteps of Viscountess Weymouth, who is competing on Strictly Come Dancing, a member of the Royal Family has signed up to appear on a Channel 4 reality show.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten has agreed to take part in Treasure Island with Bear Grylls.
‘I applied to this show in a moment of madness and, unbelievably, I got accepted,’ Lord Ivar says. ‘They cleverly changed the format this season and introduced money for us to find, thus adding to the drama.’
Lord Ivar, 56, is the Queen’s third cousin once removed and became the first member of her extended family to have a same-sex wedding last year.
He is banned from speaking about the programme until its launch next week but will say that it was the ‘most incredible experience’.
The programme, which is narrated by Chief Scout Grylls, has already been filmed and involved participants being placed on a remote island as a test of their survival skills. They are left completely alone, filming themselves, and with only the clothes they were wearing
and some basic tools and training. Lord Ivar was educated at Gordonstoun, the Moray school described by fellow pupil Prince Charles as ‘Colditz in kilts’, so he should have had no problems coping. The son of David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, Lord Ivar married Penelope Thompson and they had three daughters. However, they divorced amicably in 2011 and he revealed five years later that he was in a relationship with James Coyle, an airline cabin services director whom he met while at a Swiss ski resort.
They were married last year in a private ceremony on his Bridwell Park estate in Devon. Sweetly, his former wife walked him down the aisle and ‘gave him away’ at the suggestion of their children.