The happiest day of my life... Mandelson finally marries his partner of 27 years
LABOUR peer Peter Mandelson has spoken movingly about why he has married his long-term partner at the age of 70.
The veteran politician nicknamed ‘the Prince of Darkness’ said he was ‘delighted’ to have finally tied the knot with Brazilian translator Reinaldo Avila da Silva, 51, with whom he has had a 27-year relationship. The couple married at London’s Marylebone Town Hall on Friday and guests included Sir Tony Blair, television presenter Kate Garraway and her husband, Derek Draper.
Wearing a red rose – a symbol he introduced to the Labour party in the 1980s – former business secretary and EU commissioner Lord Mandelson described the ceremony as ‘the happiest day of my life’.
‘I once craved discretion but there’s nothing to hide,’ he wrote in the Times yesterday. ‘For most of my life I never thought it would be possible. I also did not realise how much difference being married would make in the emotional comfort and strength it brings.
‘I am of the generation of gay men who lived between the legalisation of homosexuality in 1967 and the introduction of gay marriage in 2014. It was a period when we did not legally have to hide, but public attitudes and especially the tabloid media climate about gay people was totally different from today’s.’
He then made clear his displeasure at how he says his sexuality was ‘weaponised’ against him and recalled how the now-defunct News of the World ignored his pleas and ran a story in 1987 on ‘Labour’s gay campaign chief’.
He also wrote about how, in 1998, ex-Tory MP Matthew Parris said on BBC2’s Newsnight that he was ‘among gay members of Blair’s Cabinet’. ‘I was both indifferent and angry. I had long since been “outed” so what was the fuss?’
It is interesting that Lord Mandelson chose to write for the Times, where Parris is now a columnist and which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who ran News of the World.
Also, Lord Mandelson is a presenter on the Murdoch-owned How To Win An Election podcast on Times Radio. His 2010 memoir, The Third Man, was also published by Murdoch-owned HarperPress.
Speaking of his sexuality, Lord Mandelson said he initially protected his privacy while other homosexuals were out and openly campaigning for gay equality.
He said he believed ‘gay politicians had as much right as heterosexual politicians to be judged solely on their political beliefs and ability rather than their sexuality.’
Lord Mandelson added: ‘Trying to retain our privacy has been a failure. So I am delighted to make it a glorious failure by declaring our love publicly through marriage.’