Music mogul Simon Cowell has said he felt “emotional” and “quite nervous” walking former X Factor contestant Lucy Spraggan down the aisle.
Musician Lucy, 32, married her partner, wedding photographer Emilia Smith, in a ceremony at Saltmarshe Hall, a country house near Howden.
The marriage took place earlier this month after the couple announced their engagement in March.
Speaking to Hello magazine, Cowell, the TV personality behind The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, said: “I was very honoured to be asked to walk Lucy down the aisle.
“I considered it a very big deal. As soon as she asked me, I said ‘yes’.
“On the day I was actually quite nervous because I’ve never been asked before. And then very proud and happy and emotional.
“The best way of describing our relationship is that it feels like we’ve been friends for life.
“Being asked to walk her down the aisle made me realise the significance and importance of that role.
“And throughout the day, I was thinking even though it’s been a relatively short time, we do feel like family, and we share a very special bond.”
‘Already crying’
Speaking about the ceremony, Spraggan told Hello: “Simon and I were standing outside the door and my song started playing.
“I was already crying, and Simon definitely had a tear in his eye.
“I was linking arms with him but then I realised I was holding on to his arm.
“He kept saying, ‘You’re OK, you’re all right.’ Then when Emilia walked in with her dad I just sobbed.”
Spraggan wore a white three-piece suit to the ceremony and in photos from the day she can be seen wiping a tear away from her eye while holding Cowell’s arm.
Spraggan told Fabulous Magazine in March that she had asked Cowell to give her away while she was staying with him and his fiancee Lauren Silverman.
Spraggan previously revealed that an apology from the 64-year-old had paved the way for her healing process – more than a decade after she was raped – in her memoir Process: Finding My Way Through.
Spraggan said she was raped in her hotel room, during production of The X Factor, by a porter who used a traceable keycard to gain access. He pleaded guilty and was given a 10-year jail sentence.
The music mogul’s apology came after she wrote to the companies behind The X Factor – ITV, Fremantle and Syco, Cowell’s company – detailing her experience in 2012.
Spraggan was previously married to Georgina Gordon before she announced in November 2019 that they had split after three years of marriage.
The music star released her latest single, Other Sides Of The Moon, about her wife, on their wedding day and will play at Glastonbury Festival’s Avalon Stage on June 29.