Martin Kemp and his wife Shirlie eloped to St Lucia for their 1988 wedding at the height of their fame before returning to the UK for a larger party with friends and family.
The couple have released a handful of photos of their intimate beachside ceremony, but they have shared next to no details of their second celebration – until now. The Spandau Ballet star opened up about the wild shenanigans that left Martin, Shirlie and their 40 friends and family "off their heads."
© InstagramDuring the latest episode of their podcast FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp, Martin revealed to his son Roman Kemp that he was surprised to find his wedding cake was made of weed!
"A friend of mine makes the wedding cake; the wedding cake is this beautiful thing. It's like two tiers, it's white icing, it's got the little classic posts holding up the top tier, got a little man and a bride on the top, like it's meant to be. What they didn't say, was that the whole thing was made out of dope."
Roman clarified he meant weed before Martin continued: "Everyone in the party, off their heads." When asked if he was aware of the cake's contents, he replied: "No! But we did as soon as we cut into it and smelt it, you could smell it. But there was about 40 people in my house… everybody was off their heads."
Not only did the potent cake have a hilarious effect on himself, but also on guests such as Shirlie's former Wham! co-star George Michael.
"We'd been standing looking at the toaster waiting for the toast to pop up for about two hours! It gets to about four o'clock in the morning and me and mum have been in bed for about an hour, right? Then, there's a knock on the door and these two guys are there.
© Getty"I've got my pyjamas on, and the guy said, 'You haven't seen George, have you?' I said, 'What?' He said, 'George, Michael, you haven't seen George Michael, have you?' I said, 'I haven't seen him, I thought he went home with everybody else.'
"As I closed the door, he was standing, staring at the door jam, he was standing, staring at the hinges on the door. He had been there, stuck for hours!" he confessed.
"I put my head out the door, and I called the guys back and I said, 'Here he is' and I got hold of George's collar and I pushed him out, it was kind of like, when the Flintstones put out their cat and they put Dino outside. I said, 'Here he is', and they took him home."
George Michael's matchmaking
© GettyGeorge was responsible for helping set the couple up on their first date after Shirlie was too intimidated to call Martin. He had given her his number three weeks earlier at a party, but he told HELLO! she would not have made the first move without the encouragement of the famous singer.
"In the end, she rang and we arranged a date, but what she told me later is it wasn't her that called – it was George Michael. He picked up the phone, dialled the number and handed her the receiver," Martin said.
Clifftop wedding
The couple got married in a low-key clifftop ceremony with Shirlie rocking a mini wedding dress with an an off-the-shoulder neckline and a bodycon silhouette teamed with an oversized white bow headband. Meanwhile, Martin rocked a mismatched black jacket and white trousers.
"It was just me and Shirlie," Martin told the Daily Record. "At the time, I was in the Spandau chaos and Shirlie was part of Wham! and Pepsi & Shirlie. The last thing we wanted was a wedding where people were standing next to you taking pictures, so we got away and did it on our own."
Shirlie later revealed she conceived her eldest child Harleymoon on their wedding night, while their son Roman was born four years later.
FFS! My Dad Is Martin Kemp is available to listen to on all podcast platforms.
LOOK: Roman and Martin Kemp's best father-son bonding moments in pictures
