Princess Diana's bridesmaid marries partner at age 54 in 'intimate' wedding

Princess Diana's bridesmaid, India Hicks, has married her partner of 26 years in an 'English countryside' wedding. 

• Princess Diana's bridesmaid, India Hicks, has married partner David of 26 years in an 'intimate' ceremony. 
• The British designer, now 54, was just 13 when she served as a bridesmaid in the late Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles. 
• In other royal news, Prince Andrew's Twitter and Youtube deleted after Queen strips royal privileges.
  

India Hicks, one of the bridesmaids of the late Princess Diana and the goddaughter of the Prince of Wales, has walked down the aisle for the first time at the age of 54. 

The British designer wed her long-term partner, David Flint Wood, last September, in a private ceremony at an Oxfordshire church, surrounded by family and close friends. 

India has been in a committed relationship with the 60-year-old since the mid-90s, but, unlike many of their peers, was never interested in tying the knot. 

In fact, she even declined David's marriage proposal when she was pregnant with their first child in 1996. Fast forward more than two decades, and the former fashion model has had a drastic change in perspective when it comes to being a bride. 

"For 26 years I had said, 'No, I didn't, I didn't need to be married. I didn't need to be somebody's wife. I didn't need to say his vows.' And, actually, I discovered that I did need it. I did want to be somebody, his wife. And it was meaningful, to be at a church together. It's been really lovely saying, my husband, and for him to say, his wife," she told BRIDES magazine. 

India also revealed that she began to rethink marriage during the Covid-19 pandemic after the couple's five children—aged between 24 and 13—started to question her about the state of the planet. It was their feelings of uncertainty that inspired her to take the plunge and suggest to David that they tie the knot after all. 

"The world felt very turbulent, very unstable, and the future looked very unpredictable. I wanted something grounding and anchoring not just for my children but also for myself," she added. "I suggested we get married."

The couple went through with the joyous celebration on 10 September 2021, in what India has now described as an "intensely intimate" affair. 

"I hadn't expected to say those words, 'till death do us part,' and for them to mean something. And they really did, mean something," she said. 

India also spoke about the significance of the venue, St Bartholomew's parish church, which is the site of her father's burial place and her own baptism. 

"It took my breath away to find how spiritual it felt to walk into the church on the arm of my eldest son and to say those vows to David in front of all our friends and family, in the church where I had been christened and where my father lay buried just outside," she recalled.