Spectator columnist: ‘Katie Price demeans marriage more than gay marriage ever could’
With her latest marriage to a 26-year-old stripper, conservative writer and commentator Douglas Murray says Katie Price “demeans marriage more than gay marriage ever could.”
Writing for the Spectator, Murray mocks the glamour model’s recent wedding to part-time stripper and plasterer Kieran Hayler, which took place on Good Friday.
34-year-old Price was previously married to cage fighter Alex Reid (it lasted a year), and before that, singer Peter Andre.
Commenting on the recent equal marriage protests in Paris, and the current legal proceedings in the US Supreme Court, Murray writes: “One of the things that opponents of gay civil marriage always say is that gay marriage would ‘undermine’, ‘distort’ or otherwise ‘demean’ existing marriage.
“Many people – continuing to mix up civil and religious marriage – claim that the ‘sanctity’ of religious heterosexual marriage will be undermined by a civil, non-religious, homosexual marriage.
“I cannot help thinking that this line of thought would be more persuasive if the same critics held their line when it comes to what some might argue is the non-gay ‘demeaning’ of marriage.”
Murray then turns his attention to Katie Price. “On Good Friday the topless model Jordan, aka Katie Price, married again. It is the third or fourth time she has married. This time she has married a part-time stripper who she apparently knew for six weeks before they got engaged.
“It is slightly tricky counting Ms Price’s marriages because each one includes a lot of mini-‘marriages’ – restating of vows, re-marrying, doing it again for the cameras and so on.”
Murray concludes his point by saying: “If the people who object to civil gay marriage really are concerned about the undermining of the sanctity of marriage would they not be better exercised by railing against Willy Wonka themed weddings of celebrities cashing in on magazine deals for the umpteenth time?
“If you were concerned to imbue the next generation with the importance, significance and perhaps even the sanctity of marriage would this not be a more appropriate target than any gay couple asking for the right just once to say ‘I do’?”
