Jamie Oliver has said renewing his vows with wife Jools after 23 years of marriage was “much better” because they felt they had “earned” them.
The 47-year-old chef told BBC Breakfast they had wanted to show their five children “their parents are tight and we love them”.
Jamie and former model Jools, 48, married in a church ceremony in Essex in July 2000.
They renewed their vows in the Maldives with Jamie posting images from the ceremony on Instagram over the Easter weekend.
He said: “I wanted to do it on the 20-year anniversary, which was three years ago. Covid obviously put an end to that, and I just felt that with the kids leaving school and going to university – I have got two in Leeds at uni – it was just a nice moment to let them know that their parents are tight and we love them.
“I know it sounds… Maybe some people are into it and some people are not. But I have to say the vows second time round are much better because it is like you have earned what they mean. Everything they say you have done, felt – good, bad, ugly. And there you are 23 years later going, ‘Oh my God, we did it’. Now part two.
“So for me with the big family, it felt like a nice thing to do and I just put a few pictures on Instagram. But you know what it is like. Bang! It has gone everywhere.”
He told hosts Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty he had worn a pale blue Paul Smith suit in a nod to the one he wore on his wedding day, although it had been “adjusted by a few inches”.
He also joked that he had ditched the snakeskin loafers he had worn for the big day, instead going barefoot on the beach.
On Sunday he shared a series of photos showing him, his wife and their five children – Poppy, Daisy, Petal, Buddy and River – dressed in white and pale blue outfits on a sandy beach in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
He described the ceremony as “special, funny and romantic”.
