Matthew Mitcham’s fairytale wedding as family forced not to attend
Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham has married long-term partner Luke Rutherford in a lavish European castle wedding. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing after close family did not attend. Here’s what happened.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IT was quite literally a fairytale wedding for Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham, who has married the love of his life in a European castle.
Mitcham was surrounded by around 65 family and friends as he and partner Luke Rutherford said their ‘I do’s’ at the Chateau de Halloy in Ciney, Belgium on Saturday.
“The whole thing was so beautiful,” the 31-year-old told Confidential. “I was crying for basically the entire ceremony.”
In the bridal party were Mitcham’s three siblings and Rutherford’s two brothers and two best girlfriends.
Rutherford’s niece was flower girl while his mother performed the ceremony.
The couple wrote their own vows.
“After a sustained period of lovely gestures, loyalty, gazing adoringly and many trips to Ikea, I managed to trick Luke into falling in love with me, proposing to me and finally marrying me,” Mitcham wrote on Instagram. “Now he’s stuck with me forever and ever, ha!”
A number of Mitcham’s family were unable to make the trip to Europe, including his grandparents. His uncle too is in quarantine in the Northern Territory after being a passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was struck with numerous cases of COVID-19, or Coronavirus.
“Luke organised a big surprise video montage of messages from people who couldn’t make it,” Mitcham explained.
The video also included a message from British Olympic dive champion Tom Daley.
The wedding cake was a three-tier carrot, red velvet and rainbow vanilla sponge with Mr & Mr on top.
Mitcham and Rutherford moved to the UK a year ago.
The former professional diver made international headlines after winning gold in the 10m platform diving at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 when official broadcaster NBC didn’t show the Australian athlete hugging and kissing his former partner Lachlan Fletcher during his victory lap of the pool.
At the Beijing games, Mitcham became the first openly gay athlete to win an Olympic gold medal and received the highest single-dive score in Olympic history.
Mitcham won gold in the 10m synchronised platform at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014, as well as two silvers that year and four silver medals at Delhi in 2010.
Over recent years, Mitcham has focused on his career on the stage, performing his cabaret show across the country, as well as commentating for Channel 7 at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. He has also been a strong advocate for marriage equality.
