Man marries his own mother-in-law after divorcing his wife of eight years and getting 500-year-old law overturned
- Clive Blunden, 65, and Brenda, 77, from Warrington, officially tied knot in 2007
- Pair planned to marry in 1997, but Clive was arrested due to ‘lawful impediment’
- He campaigned for the law to be changed and it was overturned ten years later
- Clive’s ex-wife, Irene, previously said she felt her mother ‘totally betrayed’ her
A man has married his own mother-in-law after divorcing his wife of eight years and getting a 500-year-old law overturned.
Clive Blunden, 65, and Brenda, 77, have been together for over 30 years and officially tied the knot in 2007.
But Clive, from Warrington, Cheshire, was arrested in 1997 after the pair announced their plans to marry.
Clive Blunden, 65, and Brenda, 77, above in 2012, have been together for more than 30 years. Clive made history when he became the first man in over 400 years to marry his mother-in-law
The 65-year-old was told he could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison due to a ‘lawful impediment’, so the couple decided to change Brenda’s surname by deed poll instead.
Clive then went on to work for the law to be changed, with a European Court overturning it ten years later, in 2005.
He told the Mirror: ‘People thought we wouldn’t last but we are stronger than ever.
‘We’re together 24/7 and there’s a magic to it.’
Brenda added: ‘Clive is a gentleman and he looks after me. I can get a bit argumentative but he quietens me down.’
Clive and his ex-wife, Irene, married in 1977 and had two daughters, divorcing in 1985.
Clive and Brenda first began dating in 1989, left, four years after Clive divorced from Irene. The pair, right, in 2012, officially tied the knot in 2007, two years after the law was overturned
Clive and Brenda pictured on ITV’s This Morning in London in 2012. The pair renewed their wedding vows five years after they married in 2007
Irene did not attend Clive and Brenda’s wedding and previously said she felt her mother ‘totally betrayed’ her.
She told The People in 2012: ‘I don’t even know who my mum is any more – she totally betrayed me.
‘This person who is smiling and laughing with my ex, posing for photographs and talking about renewing her vows is a total stranger to me.’