Jacobi’s U-turn on gay marriage

WEDDING J0Y ONE

sIR DEREk JACobI is to wed his partner, actor Richard Clifford, just four years after famously dismissing gay marriage as a ‘squabble over nothing’.

‘I’m getting married next year,’ confirms Jacobi, 78. ‘We’ve done civil partnership, we’ve been together for 39 years, and I think marriage is the next logical step.

‘ I don’t think we’ll go through the “love, honour and obey” and all that.

‘ It won’t be a religious occasion, but it will be a proper marriage.’ the news of Jacobi’s forthcoming nuptials amounts to a dramatic change of heart.

When asked about his views on gay marriage in 2012, he said: ‘the word doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s a squabble over nothing . . . It doesn’t matter what you call it. We don’t think of it as marriage, it’s a partnership.

‘People are getting hot under the collar at the moment because of this word.’

Acknowledging religious opposition to gay marriage, Jacobi, a staunch atheist, says: ‘Well, I suppose their argument is that marriage is equated with having children, but what about couples who meet in their 50s? they can’t have children.

‘or what if you are biologically unable to have children? the word becomes meaningless . . . the Church is the problem. I don’t mind people having faith and finding strength in that. but it ain’t for me.’