Home is where the heart is as Petra Ecclestone weds at her £170m mansion
FORMULA One heiress Petra Ecclestone married a used car salesman yesterday – in the comfort of her lavish £170million Chelsea home.
Guests gathered in the Georgian mansion’s landscaped gardens – the largest in London’s Kensington and Chelsea borough – at 5pm to see the youngest daughter of billionaire Bernie Ecclestone tie the knot with Sam Palmer.
The newlyweds were met with claps and cheers as they made their vows to the strains of a string quartet.
Friends described the day as ‘small and intimate’ – a deliberate contrast to Petra’s ostentatious £12million wedding to her first husband James Stunt in Italy in August 2011.
Just minutes after the ceremony, Essex-born Mr Palmer posted a photograph on Instagram of his new wedding band, along with the words: ‘I can’t believe I’m a married man.’ He also kept
Newlyweds met with cheers as they made their vows
followers updated in the run-up to the wedding, sharing a picture of lunch at high-end Japanese restaurant Zuma – a favourite of the Ecclestone family – in Knightsbridge, West London.
Mr Palmer, 32, also found time to post a selfie en route to the ceremony along with a photo of the pageboys – Petra’s twin sevenyear-old sons with Stunt, James Robert Frederick Jr and Andrew Kulbir – in navy silk pyjamas in a beauty salon.
Meanwhile, the bride’s older sister Tamara was maid of honour alongside bridesmaids including Petra’s eldest daughter Lavinia, nine, and her nieces Sophia, eight, and twoyear-old Serena.
Tamara made an emotional speech, hailing her sister as her best friend and sharing childhood anecdotes to the amusement of guests.
Tycoon Mr Ecclestone, 91, who learned last week that he would be charged with tax fraud, was not spotted entering the property but friends said that he gave his daughter away.
Slavica, his ex-wife and the mother of his two daughters, was also present, while sources said that reality star Paris Hilton was expected to attend.
Guests, including former Chelsea footballer Cesc Fabregas and his wife Daniella Semaan, ate Italian food from Ms Ecclestone’s favourite restaurant, C in Mayfair, where she was a regular with Stunt during their marriage.
The menu, posted on Instagram, showed a six-course feast that included tomato pasta or saffron risotto for starters, salted sea bass or chicken milanese as mains, along with fried courgettes and steamed spinach.
Pudding was a selection of ice cream followed by coffee and chocolates.
Last Thursday, Tamara threw her sister a lavish hen party with dinner at her £200 million Kensington mansion followed by a night out at Mayfair private members’ bar Club 22, where the sisters posed for photos together.
In one, the 33-year-old brideto-be was seen wearing a glitter hat with the word ‘Bride’ on. Mr Palmer, by contrast, opted for a golf day with brother-in-law-tobe Jay Rutland. There was no sign of Bernie.
The couple – who were introduced by Mr Rutland in 2018 following Petra’s split from Stunt – had been forced to cancel their first planned wedding, originally pencilled in for Mexico in 2019. Soon after, it was revealed that Ms Ecclestone was pregnant with the couple’s daughter Minnie, now two.