John Whaite marries Paul Atkins and shares wedding album online – 10 years after covering Attitude’s Love & Marriage issue
The Bake Off star wore a kilt for his "big day in the Big Apple"
John Whaite has married his long-term partner Paul Atkins in in New York City, the Bake Off star has announced.
Former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Whaite shared the news on Instagram yesterday (Thursday 1 February 2024).
The announcement comes 10 years after the pair shared plans for their dream wedding in Attitude’s Love & Marriage special.
The issue was released to celebrate the arrival of marriage equality in the UK in March 2014.
“Mr and Mr”
Sharing photos of their big day to to Instagram, 34-year-old Whaite said: “Our big day in the Big Apple. Mr & Mr.”
Whaite, who wore a kilt and a leather jacket for the occasion, then shared a quote from Anthony Kennedy, Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on the subject of same-sex equality.
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” Kennedy said in 2015.
“In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage.
“Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
The US achieved marriage equality on 26 June 2015.
Whaite rose to fame as a contestant on Bake Off in 2012, and appeared on Strictly in 2021. The chef’s other TV credits include Steph’s Packed Lunch and Lorraine.