Richard Keys marries daughter's friend who is 30 years his junior

Former Sky Sports pundit Richard Keys has tied the knot with a friend of his daughter after his previous marriage of 34 years came to an end.

Richard, 66, married 35-year-old lawyer Lucie Rose at a country estate in Brixham, Devon, after previously denying claims that he'd left his former wife, Julia, to be in a relationship with her.

In 2016, Julia, who had battled thyroid cancer, claimed Richard had met Lucie, who was friends with their daughter, Jemma, while working in Doha.

BeIN Sports

"The lies began," she told The Sun at the time, adding: "I don’t feel bitter towards Lucie, but deeply disappointed that she could devastate our family like this."

Richard later hit back, saying he didn't know 'why [their] marriage ended the way it did'.

Speaking to The Athletic, he said: “If people believe that I walked away with my wife fighting cancer with a friend of my daughter’s, I can’t change that now. Tell a lie twice and it becomes the truth. Tell it on social media and it haunts you forever."

Richard has since described himself as a 'very lucky man' in his relationship with Lucie, telling The Sun before the wedding that he was 'feeling a bit nervous'.

Photos from the big day showed the pundit dressed in a light suit and travelling around the estate in a white Land Rover, complete with white wedding ribbons.

Another snap, shared on Instagram, showed the bride and groom gazing at one another as they celebrated their nuptials out in the sun in front of loved ones.

Instagram/@bryonydeery

Richard and Lucie reportedly hired a local band to perform at the wedding, along with Australian pianist Greg Agar.

The pundit has revealed the pair are heading off to Canada for their honeymoon to visit somewhere 'a bit different'.

He continued: "Then it’s back to work for both of us in August and the start of the football season for me. People think I might be a bit long in the tooth now but I don’t care.”

Jemma is thought not to have attended her dad's wedding, with the crowd instead filled out with many of Lucie's friends and family.

In 2018, Jemma described the relationship between her dad and her friend as 'the most awful betrayal'.

"I felt like my father had been stolen from me, and the affair genuinely has destroyed my family and my relationship with Dad," she said.

Richard was fired from his job at Sky Sports in 2011 after making derogatory remarks about a referee. He now works for beIN Sports, which is based in Qatar.

Topics: Sport, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships, UK News

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.