James Blunt’s life offstage – marriage to ‘robust’ aristocratic spouse and tragic loss

Singer-songwriter James Blunt has been very busy of late, with the discharge of his new album Who We Used To Be just about coinciding with the publication of his sometimes self-deprecating memoir Loosely Based mostly on a Made-Up Story. This marks the 49-year-old’s first album since 2019, and it makes for an emotional pay attention, with lots of the tracks drawing from painful moments in James’ life.

As followers eagerly watch for the musician and pithy Twitter legend’s 2024, and as he makes an look on tonight’s The One Present, we check out his private life away from the highlight, from his marriage to an aristocratic spouse, to the devastating loss that impressed a poignant monitor.

Marriage to ‘robust’ spouse

James is married to Sofia Wellesley, an Edinburgh College-educated authorized advisor with aristocratic roots. The daughter of Lord and Woman John Henry Wellesley, and granddaughter of the eighth Duke of Wellington, it was maybe no shock that James and Sofia acquired an unique invite to the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Might 2018.

The couple started relationship in 2012 and, on September 5, 2014, tied the knot in a non-public ceremony held at a London registry workplace, the morning after attending music legend Elton John’s annual Finish of Summer season celebration in Windsor. As reported by the Mail On-line, socialite Sofia joked with buddies on the time that she “was nearly too hungover to get married”.

No sooner had they mentioned, ‘I do’, the lovebirds jetted off to Majorca for a second ceremony with household and pals, held at Sofia’s mom’s breathtaking Marsana property. Reflecting on his selection of accomplice with the Mail On-line forward of the massive day, James defined: “It takes a powerful particular person to have the ability to cope with someone working in music. It is exhausting while you’re with someone and also you develop into embroiled in one thing simply since you have been seen standing subsequent to another person.” He added: “It takes a tricky particular person to cope with that and I am fortunate to have her.”

James and Sofia are actually elevating two youngsters collectively, with their first son born in 2016. Though the proud dad and mom are eager to guard their youngsters’s privateness, it’s understood that they selected fellow singer Ed Sheeran because the godfather for his or her eldest. In an interview with The Solar, Ed revealed: “James is sort of a brother to me, really I am not fairly certain if I can say this, however I’ll — he is simply made me god­father to his son. To be trustworthy, I feel he is solely finished it as a result of he is aware of I’ve acquired a good suggestion of what kind of particular person he’d need him to be when he grows up — an absolute lad. We will be brothers for all times.”

Painful losses

For his son’s godmother, James opted for his shut buddy Carrie Fisher, whose dying in December 2016 left him “desperately unhappy” that the teen would develop up with out realizing her. James instructed Individuals journal on the time: “She’s essentially the most superb particular person I do know and I am actually desperately unhappy he will not get to know her however I’ve many reminiscences, many tales I am going to have the ability to inform him. I do not know if any of them are secure sufficient to inform on digital camera!”

When it got here to his newest album, James drew upon his grief for Carrie within the heartbreaking monitor Darkish Thought. In a current interview with The Solar, James defined: “Within the track, it is a critical story about after I drive to the home and see a For Sale signal exterior and shed a tear. However in actual life, it was a humorous second when a star tour bus got here alongside and the tour information mentioned over the Tannoy, ‘And on the left you may see the late, nice Carrie Fisher’s home and you may see some followers are nonetheless paying their respects’. And that was me blubbing by the gate.”