Lily Allen gets married – and reveals she's having a baby
Damien Hirst, Harry Enfield and Angus Deayton were among 100 guests at the ceremony
Lily Allen had two reasons to smile yesterday: she got married and listened to her new husband Sam Cooper tell their closest friends and that she is expecting their baby. The award-winning singer, famous for the hits "LDN", "Smile" and "The Fear", suffered a miscarriage just seven months ago and the delighted guests dabbed their eyes at the surprise announcement. As the old joke goes, it was so emotional that even the wedding cake was in tears.
Ms Allen and Mr Cooper – a painter and decorator who runs a building company – tied the knot at St James the Great Church in Cranham, a village near Stroud. It was during his speech at the reception, staged in the couple's garden, that Mr Cooper, 33, revealed that Ms Allen was already around 16 weeks pregnant.
Comedian Harry Enfield, artist Damien Hirst, and actor Angus Deayton were among the 100 guests at the wedding, while the television host Miquita Oliver, a childhood friend of the singer, had the role of one of Ms Allen's bridesmaids. Her brother Alfie, who is an actor and about whom Ms Allen recorded an entire song on her first album, had the role of usher.
The 26-year-old bride arrived in a Bentley with her actor father Keith Allen, who plays the Sheriff of Nottingham in the BBC's Robin Hood series, wearing a £2,500 lacy dress by the French designer Delphine Manivet.
A small baby bump was noticeable as she walked into the church. Readings during the hour-long service included Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat" and the lyrics to "Have I Told You Lately", the emotional Van Morrison ballad.
The couple paid for extra policing to ensure five of the Gloucestershire village's roads could be closed off for seven hours, and officers set up a half-mile exclusion zone around the church. The couple have been together for three years and Mr Cooper proposed during a holiday in Bali on Christmas Day last year. Ms Allen also suffered a miscarriage in January 2008 while she was dating Ed Simons, a musician from The Chemical Brothers band.
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