Inside Talulah Riley & Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s fairytale wedding – including ‘surprise’ bridesmaid & sweet ringbearer
THEY say that third time is a charm – and here’s hoping it is true for actress Talulah Riley.
The St Trinian’s beauty, 38, dazzled as she tied the knot with Love Actually actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster in a idylic village ceremony.
Wearing a simple white satin gown and veil, she beamed as she emerged from St George’s Church in Anstey, Herts, with her new husband.
And while Thomas, 34, may be only the second man to win Talulah’s heart, Saturday’s nuptials mark the THIRD time the Brit actress has said ‘I do’. She has already been hitched to billionaire Elon Musk, 52, TWICE.
Talulah will no doubt be hoping that, this time, she has bagged herself a keeper in Thomas, who found fame at 13 as lovesick Sam in 2003 rom-com Love Actually.
The couple, who met on the set of Disney+ miniseries Pistol in 2021, have been busy planning their future after reportedly buying a Grade II-listed manor house. They have yet to publicly comment on their wedding.
But one bystander told The Sun: “Thomas walked from the house to the church and Talulah arrived in a horse-drawn carriage.
“While they were inside for the ceremony, another horse arrived with white roses woven through its mane.
“The horse was a bridesmaid and I think he arranged it as a surprise. She looked happy when she saw it.
“There was a dog who was part of the wedding party, with a box and ribbon on its back, so I think it was the couple’s ring bearer.”
Guests formed a guard of honour and members of the public applauded the couple, who left in the horse-drawn carriage for their reception.
The onlooker added: “In the fields across from their home, there were several marquees with fairground rides, including a merry-go-round and helter skelter.”
Career on back burner
The quaint wedding came just under a year after the couple announced their engagement.
Talulah shared the news on ex-hubby Elon’s social media site X. The Tesla and Space X boss even responded with a post offering his congratulations.
And Thomas wrote on Instagram: “Happy to announce Talulah and I are engaged. Love is all around X” — a nod to the Troggs’ ballad that featured in Love Actually.
Love is all around X’ — an apparent nod to the Troggs’ ballad that featured in Love Actually.
There was a dog who was part of the wedding party, with a box and ribbon on its back, so I think it was the couple’s ring bearer
Bystander
Talulah’s quirky love life is perhaps no surprise from a star who often bucks the Hollywood stereotype.
She does not belive in sex before marriage, swore off booze aged 12 and took acting lessons in a bid to cure her crippling shyness.
The actress, an only child, had a distinctly non-showbiz upbringing in Hemel Hempstead, Herts, with dad Doug Milburn — a top cop turned screenwriter — and mum Una Riley, who owns PR and business management firms.
Attending Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls in Elstree, South East London, had its challenges, as Talulah struggled with the “pressure” of a “very academic” setting. So her parents signed her up for weekend acting classes at London’s Sylvia Young Theatre.
Talulah, who also attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College in Gloucs, once said: “They were happy for me to have a go at acting but encouraged me to stay in school and take my A level exams.
“To help me with the apprehension, they said I didn’t have to open the results, so they ended up in a frame, unopened, at my father’s office.”
In 2022 Talulah said her score on “introversion” in personality tests was sky high. But she has never let it put her off a screen career.
She was still at school when she bagged a role in the TV series Poirot.
Then, a day after finishing her A-Levels, she was starring alongside Dame Judi Dench, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan in Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.
She continued with her studies, starting a degree in Natural Sciences at the Open University, before landing the lead role of Annabelle Fritton in high school film St Trinian’s in 2007.
The following year, Talulah, who has also starred in Doctor Who, met Elon in the posh London club Whisky Mist while he was on a business trip. He wooed her by talking about rockets and cars.
In 2012 she revealed she was still a virgin of 22 when she met Musk, saying: “I’ve never slept with anyone apart from Elon. Which is nice.”
In a BBC documentary about him, Talulah revealed: “My first impressions were that he was very sweet, he seemed quite shy. He said, ‘May I put my hand on your knee?’ and I said, ‘OK go on then’. I thought it was quite sweet that he asked.”
On how their relationship developed, she added: “He said, ‘I’d love to see you tomorrow. Can we meet for breakfast?’. So we had breakfast.
“And at the end of breakfast, he said, ‘Would you come and have lunch with me?’. So we went for lunch. And then he said, ‘Would you come for dinner?’.
“And then, one evening, I remember he said, ‘Would you like to come back to my hotel room so we can look at rocket videos?’.
The horse was a bridesmaid and I think he arranged it as a surprise. She looked happy when she saw it
Bystander
“And I thought, ‘Hmm, OK, I’ll come back’. And he did just show me rocket videos.”
Talulah’s dad, head of the National Crime Squad before becoming a writer of TV police shows including The Bill, did not approve. She recalled: “He Googled ‘Elon + rocket + electric car’ and exclaimed angrily that Elon was married with five children.
“He replied, ‘You’ve been picked up by a playboy. Text that man that you’re not going for dinner with him and he’s a b*****d’.”
Acting power couple
Elon, though, had filed for divorce from his first wife Justine.
After a whirlwind romance the couple got engaged. Within weeks Talulah had moved to the US to live with Elon and his five sons in his LA mansion.
Twins Vivian and Griffin, now 20, and triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian, now 18, were all under five.
However, the Open University wouldn’t let Talulah continue her studies internationally, so she put her career on the back burner.
She said: “I came back for the second St. Trinian’s movie but, apart from that, I stopped working to focus on Elon and the kids.”
The couple got married in Scotland’s Dornoch Cathedral in 2010, but divorced two years later.
They remarried in 2013, with Talulah later saying they had “got back together at the divorce filing”.
Elon initiated their second divorce in 2014, before withdrawing the lawsuit months later.
However in 2016, Talulah asked that proceedings begin again and they split for good. She reportedly got a £12.5million settlement.
Talulah — who has published two novels, had a cameo in Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception and played a sexy robot in sci-fi series Westworld — later returned to the UK.
She had an on-off relationship with artist Matthew Rice, who is around 60 — some 23 years her senior, and who gave her GOATS for Christmas.
The romance was said to have fallen by the wayside to make room for Thomas, although that relationship only began at the end of filming for Pistol, in which the couple played fashion designers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.
Talulah said at the time: “We hadn’t really acknowledged each other as a romantic possibility until the moment we did.”
Now, three years on, once-shy Talulah and Thomas are one of Britain’s newest acting power couples.