In an exclusive interview and photoshoot with HELLO! magazine, Jodie Kidd has revealed all the details about her engagement to long-term boyfriend Joseph Bates.
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She recalls how she had been been soaking in the bath during a romantic trip to Paris last November when Joseph burst into the room and got down on one knee.
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"I thought he was bending down to have a chat with me, but suddenly he came out with it," she told HELLO! exclusively from their beautiful home in West Sussex. "I was a bit shocked. I just said: 'Oh my goodness!' But it couldn't have been a more wonderful moment. I guess in a restaurant it would have been clichéd. But this was private, fun and different."
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Joseph tells the magazine how he had also planned the proposal for some time. "I kept thinking: 'Shall I do it now? Is this the right place?'"Â he said. "I wanted it to be private, but I sort of ad-libbed."
The couple posing with Indio
And she adds that her ten-year-old son Indio, from a previous relationship, was delighted to hear about the wedding news. "He's been asking for years: 'When are you guys getting married?'Â so when we told him, he was very happy,"Â the former supermodel said. "He and Joseph adore each other. They have the most gorgeous relationship."
The couple are now planning their dream wedding at a friend's property in the West Country. "There are so many people who we haven’t seen in such a long time and what a wonderful way for us all to come together to celebrate," Jodie says.
This will be Joseph's first marriage and Jodie's third. But she says that taking it slow this time around – the couple got together in 2017 - means their union feels just right.
"I was young and gung-ho and wanted things far too quickly,"Â she says. "I believed in marriage so passionately that I've just gone: 'Yeeees,'Â and then learnt the error of my ways by being too brash. I hadn't thought enough about whether it's the right person who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
"I've now matured somewhat in my rash decision-making. And this isn't a gunshot wedding. We've lived together for three or so years. There’s a lot of stability and we're an amazing family unit, so it feels a lot safer."
Hair and makeup by Tori Ball using Monika Blunder Beauty and MURAD.
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