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Ken’s wedding day: he wears old suit and arrives on Tube
Kevin Widdop28.09.09
It was the low-key wedding to end all low-key weddings — and wasn't even followed by a honeymoon.
Former mayor Ken Livingstone, 64, admitted times were tough and wore a seven-year-old suit for his big day and took the Tube to the ceremony. He even went to work in the morning, hosting his regular LBC radio phone-in.
But the one extravagance he did stretch to was hiring a £137,000 Bentley Continental in which his bride Emma Beal, 43, arrived at London Zoo — despite his famous antipathy towards cars.
Animal lover Mr Livingstone — once dubbed “King Newt” by Mayor Boris Johnson — invited 80 relatives and friends to the wedding, including the couple's two children, Thomas, six, and Mia, five.
His purple suit was a gift from designer Ozwald Boateng in 2002, after the then Mayor opened his new Savile Row shop. The wedding was not the suit's first outing — Mr Livingstone wore it at the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations that year. On Saturday, Mr Livingstone matched it with a red tie. His wife, his former office manager at City Hall, wore a scarlet dress.
The couple tied the knot in the Mappin Pavilion, near the reptile house at the zoo. Best man was Simon Fletcher, Mr Livingstone's former City Hall chief of staff. Mr Livingstone told the Standard: “We haven't even thought about a honeymoon yet. You can't do it, there's so much going on. You have to be careful with the money as well, the way things are at the moment.
“If we do go away it will probably be in half term, but I haven't even looked at the diary. I'm at the Labour conference and heading to Amsterdam on Wednesday for a meeting so there's really no time.
“The wedding coincided with the Komodo dragons' feeding time so the kids popped off to see that and there's a snake experience as well. They were kept entertained long enough not to get bored.
“I travelled to the wedding on the Bakerloo line with my best man Simon, got off at Regent's Park and had a walk from there.”
Mr Livingstone, whose 1973 marriage to Christine Chapman ended in 1982, also has three teenage children, with two other women.
He met Ms Beal when she worked for ES Magazine and he was its restaurant critic. He said last month he had been planning to marry her for some years and now seemed the ideal time.
He added: “We had a low-key wedding because we wanted a private family wedding, not a media circus.”
Reader views (13)
iam a simple man with simple needs, thank the gods there are people like ken about. bankers take a note.
- Mike Sainsbury, waltham abbey
Good on him. He used to take the tube regularly in the mornings when I lived on the Bakerloo line - actually lives like normal Londoners.
- Mike, London
Best wishes to Ken and Emma. I saw Ken in Rye in Sussex at the end of August; he was surrounded by crowds of people asking for his autograph. He had taken time out and was sitting on a bench in the sun. Travelling to his wedding on the tube is so Ken isn't it, he always puts his money where his mouth is. I see the poll asking if he should put himself up for the next mayoral election is now 83% in favour. You don't realise what you have until you've lost it. Ken will always be a man of the people and you will get what it says on the tin.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa, Spain
Congratulations,Emma and Ken. You both looked fab, and since when did anyone care what the groom wears.
- Louis, Wembley
Wish I could find a 43-year old woman as good looking as Emma.
- Tom Watson, Leicester
Bet he had a few drinks to celebrate!
- St, London
Surely the real story here is how much Ken Livingstone looks like Michael Howard. I've never seen them occupying the same space at the same time...has anyone else?
Agree on the suit. Good call Ken. Why buy a new one when you have a top quality one laying around at home? Even if it was a gift.
- Escobar Alop-Lop, Camden County
Good Luck, Ken & Emma.
I like the suit by the way; Ozwald Boateng knows how to cut a good garment, suits like that, last forever.
Very few people today know what a bespoke suit looks and feels like.
So; ignore Raminder Bhalla, of Northolt; he is probably still wearing a frock, and doesn't know a good suit from a bad frock anyway.
- Mickinlondon, london
Wonder where the honeymoon will be?
Old Kent Road perhaps?
- Simon, London
Good old Ken - he really knows how to show a woman a good time then!.
- Mark Burton, St Ives. Cambs
What a cheap man - old suit and arriving on a tube! what on earth does this woman see in him? If anyone else dared to this - he would be called a cheap git!
- Raminder Bhalla, Northolt
Good for Ken and Emma.
Well done too, and to the "office manager". Londoners encore, carry on.
Now I know where to get married.
The Zoo is brilliant and has been for years; more people should get hitched there and help the Zoo's conservation projects...........!!
- Simon Woods, London
Congratulations on your recent wedding Ken. Atleast you don't make a hullabaloo and drag in all the tabloids as Boris seems to do about just about everything. But then you were always a more derious politician
- Keith Price, Luton England
