Post Office scandal campaigner Sir Alan Bates has married his longtime partner Suzanne Sercombe on Sir Richard Branson’s private island in the Caribbean Sea.
The billionaire Virgin tycoon also officiated the wedding in the British Virgin Islands last month and gave a speech touching on Sir Alan’s dogged fight for justice, The Sunday Times reports.
Sir Richard, 74, is said to have invited the couple to the island after Sir Alan, 70, said in an interview in January: “If Richard Branson is reading this, I’d love a holiday.”
The wedding reportedly came as a surprise to the new Lady Bates, 69, who had to wear a patterned sundress she had packed for the holiday rather than a traditional bridal gown.
The couple have been together 34 years but had never tied the knot.
Sir Richard told The Sunday Times: “It was an absolute joy to play a small part in Alan and Suzanne’s love story, and I know they will continue to spread the beautiful light they share with everyone around them.”
The couple had visited the register office on the nearby island of Tortola the day before for the official wedding ceremony.
Sir Alan became a household name after he was played by Toby Jones in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
The series told the true story of how he led a campaign on behalf of more than 700 subpostmasters who were prosecuted by the Post Office and wrongly given criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015.
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Sir Richard Branson on his island in 2020. Pic: Ingrid Abery/Shutterstock
Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system had made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Julie Hesmondhalgh, the actress who played Sir Alan’s wife in the ITV drama, said Suzanne is “the wind beneath his wings”.
An inquiry that was set up to investigate why the hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted will resume on 23 September.