Rupert Everett ties the knot despite branding gay marriage ‘tragic’

The actor previously criticised gay couples for emulating heterosexual customs

Rupert Everett has revealed that he has tied the knot with his long-term partner despite previously branding gay marriage “tragic”.
The British actor, 65, officially announced his marriage to Brazilian accountant Henrique after a modest ceremony in London.
Everett has previously questioned why gay couples would want to emulate heterosexual wedding arrangements, calling matrimonial traditions “tragic” and “grotesque”.
However, the star has now suggested that he wanted the security of marriage as he ages, telling Tatler: “I have always hated weddings, although I do love funerals.
“But when you get older… I have seen so many problems that gay couples face, so it’s really more about forward-thinking, as we have been together for a long time now.”
He added: “And I don’t know how long I’m going to last. Well, being tall, I’ve never seen a 95-year-old 6ft 5in person. You just never know what’s going to happen.”
Speaking in 2012, he said: “It’s grotesque. It’s just hideous. The wedding cake, the party, the champagne, the inevitable divorce two years later.
“It’s just a waste of time in the heterosexual world, and in the homosexual world I find it personally beyond tragic that we want to ape this institution that is so clearly a disaster.”
Explaining his position in a lengthy interview with The Guardian, Everett added: “For me, being gay was about wanting to do the opposite of the straight world, so I think that’s where my problems in this particular area come from.”
He said at the time that he could think of nothing worse than a child being brought up by two gay fathers, saying that, for him, it would be “absolutely hideous”. He added: “I think we should all do what we want.”
Everett had a softer position on marriage in 2020, when he suggested that he wanted to be with his partner Henrique “forever”, and predicted a simple wedding, saying that it would not be: “George Clooney on a motorski going down the Grand Canal in Venice.”
It has been reported that he and his partner tied the knot at Camden Town Hall, and followed the ceremony with a meal at their favourite restaurant.
Everett has been open about his past opposition to monogamy, and his more libertine lifestyle, particularly when first starting out in the film industry.
In 2023, Everett said that his career and personal life suffered from his early exposure to fame, telling The Times: “I had a lot of individuality… but I never learnt how to focus and, looking back, for me, everything was just about sex. Everything.
“And it felt for a while like liberty, to f— everyone. But once you’d f—ed everyone, or even in the process of f***ing everyone, you realised that it then became a prison.”
Everett has expressed regret that he was “too frivolous”. He said: “I could have done all the things I did much later much earlier if I’d been more interested in working and not just having a laugh.”
In 2018, Everett engineered his own Hollywood comeback by directing and starring in The Happy Prince, a historical drama about the final days of Oscar Wilde which was a critical success.
He has since appeared as the Duke of Wellington in the Ridley Scott historical epic Napoleon.