Made in Chelsea star Ollie Locke and fiancé devastated as dream wedding venue refuses to marry them because they’re gay
Ollie and Gareth Locke (Made in Chelsea)
Made in Chelsea star Ollie Locke and his fiancé have opened up about the shock they felt when they were told they couldn’t get married in their dream venue because of their sexuality.
Locke and his fiancé Gareth Locke revealed on the hit reality show that they were told by a church they would not be able to marry there as a gay couple, and instead could only have a blessing.
“We had this idea of getting married in this beautiful church, and we found this beautiful church and like going through the process of actually having a wedding there, how are we going to do it, and then we found out that basically we can’t actually get married there,” Gareth told cast member Sophie Hermann.
“They don’t do gay marriages,” Ollie said, adding he was “the most upset I’d been for a long time”.
“We’ve obviously fought for so many years for all of this,” he continued.
Many churches still will not perform same-sex weddings, with the Church of England and the Catholic Church both maintaining firm anti-LGBT+ policies.
Ollie Locke and fiancé discover LGBT+ honeymoons can be difficult.
Ollie Locke and his fiancé also discussed the fact that they can’t honeymoon in some of the world’s most popular resorts for newlyweds because of harsh anti-LGBT+ laws.
Ollie said: “Also we were talking about honeymoons, there’s somewhere that everyone goes on their honeymoons that we can’t go.”
This whole process has been a bit of an education to understand that, you know, we’re not there yet, and there’s still a lot to be done.
Gareth said that they can’t go to some countries “out of principle”, while Ollie said they were put off the idea of travelling to certain locations that “don’t agree with gay marriage”.
“You forget about this when you live in London, actually,” Hermann told the couple.
“Yeah, and when you’re in a happy relationship, and we’re in a bit of a bubble,” Gareth said.
“This whole process has been a bit of an education to understand that, you know, we’re not there yet, and there’s still a lot to be done,” he added.
Ollie said: “I suppose it’s just life, but it’s one of those thing that until you’re doing something like this you don’t really realise how unequal things are still.”
Ollie came out as bisexual on Made in Chelsea in 2011, but last year clarified that he is actually gay.
