Third time lucky for Mrs Rocknroll?
The jokes started flowing on Twitter as soon as the news broke that Kate Winslet had married for a third time. But when your new husband’s surname is Rocknroll you’re probably prepared.
According to one, her wedding vows to Ned Rocknroll began with: ‘‘He’s only Rocknroll, but I like him,’’ while suggested names for their first child inevitably included Webuiltthiscityon.
Whether Winslet, 37, elects to call herself Mrs Rocknroll remains to be seen, but the Oscar-winning actress is said to be thrilled after the secret ceremony in New York.
Ned Rocknroll, 34, is a lot more showbiz than her new husband’s original name of Abel Smith, which he changed by deed poll a few years ago after declaring that ‘‘people take themselves too seriously’’. He is a nephew of Sir Richard Branson and works at the billionaire tycoon’s Virgin Galactic space travel venture.
He has described his role to friends as head of astronaut relations. Since Virgin Galactic has yet to launch its first space flight, it’s probably safe to say that, while the couple’s honeymoon will be memorable, it won’t be out of this world.
The bride was given away by Leonardo DiCaprio, her co-star in the 1997 film Titanic, at the private service attended by only a handful of friends and Winslet’s two children from previous marriages.
Her parents, Roger and Sally, were not among the select few. Asked at their home in Reading, southeast England, what they thought of the marriage, Mr Winslet replied: ‘‘What are you going on about?’’
Rocknroll’s father, Robert, was
‘‘He’s only Rocknroll, but I like him’’ A tweeter makes the obvious gag about Kate
Winslet’s marriage vows to Ned Rocknroll
equally baffled at his Gloucestershire farm, saying: ‘‘It’s not something I know of, but nothing would surprise me with those two.’’
The ceremony was said to have taken place in a converted barn with only six close friends from either side in attendance.
Winslet’s spokesman said: ‘‘I can confirm that Kate Winslet married Ned Rocknroll in New York earlier this month in a private ceremony attended by her two children and a very few friends and family. The couple had been engaged since the summer.’’
The pair had moved in to a £2 million (NZ$3.9m) 15th-century house in West Sussex, southern England, earlier this year, he added.
Disaster fanned the flames of romance after the pair met last year at Branson’s private Necker Island resort in the British Virgin Islands. Winslet helped rescue Branson’s mother, Eve, 39, when fire from a lightning storm destroyed his home.
Winslet’s future husband was there with his brother Jack, who was best man at their wedding.
Rocknroll had separated the previous year from his first wife, Eliza Pearson, daughter of Viscount Cowdray, whom he married in 2009 in a pagan ceremony at her family’s 6677-hectare estate in Sussex.
Pearson, 23, told the Daily Mail last year that Rocknroll had ‘‘taught me about love’’, and described the moment when he revealed he was dating Winslet.
‘‘My reaction when Ned told me he had found someone else – and that it was Kate Winslet – was that it was painful, but that’s what was beautiful about it,’’ she said.
‘‘We’re all good friends; it’s all a big loving space. I’m not sure if I’ll meet them yet. I think it will be hard.’’
Winslet and her second husband, Sam Mendes, the director of Skyfall and American Beauty, divorced in 2010 after seven years of marriage that began ‘‘on a whim’’ while they were on holiday in the Caribbean.
The couple, who have a son, Joe, aged 9, described the split as ‘‘entirely amicable’’.
Her first marriage was in 1998 to Jim Threapleton after they met on the set of the film Hideous Kinky. They divorced in 2001 and have a daughter, Mia, 12.
Winslet had hinted earlier this year that she was considering tying the knot again, saying: ‘‘I still believe in the beauty of committing yourself to another person and in the idea of marriage as an expression of that commitment.’’