A wedding is normally a joyous occasion that brings families together. Sadly, however, the upcoming nuptials between Britain’s Olympic swimming golden boy Adam Peaty and his influencer fiancée Holly Ramsay, daughter of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, have become part of a “hurtful” feud after Peaty’s mother Caroline was excluded from Ramsay’s swish hen do.
Sources close to Peaty claim that he has allegedly disinvited his mother from the wedding too.
It’s an extraordinary low point in the relationship between Peaty and his staunchly supportive, working-class family, who have been crucial to his gold-medal Olympic success and stuck with him through challenging times. As Peaty himself put it in 2021: “Parents are the unsung heroes of our sport.”
Yet their bond may not be so close since Peaty, 30, joined a new, rather more illustrious clan. He first met Ramsay, 25, in 2021 thanks to Strictly Come Dancing: Peaty was competing on the BBC show alongside Ramsay’s sister, Tilly. They didn’t begin their romance until 2023 (Peaty was still dating Eirianedd Munro, with whom he shares a five-year-old son), but it was a whirlwind courtship – he and Holly announced their engagement just a year later, in September 2024.
While Adam Peaty, right, enjoys the company of bride Holly Ramsay’s parents Gordon and Tara, his own relatives are unhappy about the way his mother appears to have been treated – hollyramsayy/Instagram
However, what should be a happy time has instead been plagued by recriminations in the wake of Holly’s star-studded hen party at Cotswolds hotspot Soho Farmhouse. Glamorous photos shared on social media showed the bride-to-be posing with her mother Tana, sisters Megan and Tilly, Peaty’s sister Bethany, and friend Victoria Beckham.
But one person was conspicuous by her absence: Peaty’s mother Caroline, 59. This despite the fact that Peaty had invited Gordon Ramsay to his stag night, making the apparent snub even more glaring.
It seems to have enraged Peaty’s aunt Louise Williams, who took to Instagram to address Holly directly. She wrote last week that Holly had been “divisive and hurtful” towards Caroline, a woman “who opened her home and heart to you”.
Caroline Peaty’s dedication when Adam was young was a key factor in his success – ANL/Shutterstock
Williams continued: “You decided, for whatever reason, not to invite her, your prospective mother-in-law to your hen night […] You invited your mum (quite rightly) and even your mum’s assistant, your sisters, your friends, my niece, but not my sister, your future mother-in-law.” Williams concluded: “Quite frankly, I expected better of you and definitely of Adam. You have inflicted a hurt on my sister that will take a very long time to heal if ever.”
Caroline has been more gnomic on her social media, but she did recently post on Instagram “Crying is a way your eyes speak when your mouth can’t explain how broken your heart is”, and “The ones I love are the people who hurt me the most”.
Williams commented on the former post claiming that: “Holly and Adam have broken my darling sister”.
Several sympathetic commenters compared Caroline’s situation to the ongoing feud between David and Victoria Beckham and their son Brooklyn. When the ex-footballer was knighted by King Charles III at Windsor Castle earlier this month, his eldest son was noticeably absent. While Victoria, Romeo, Cruz and Harper gathered for the ceremony and shared proud photos online, Brooklyn and his wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham, the daughter of an American billionaire, remained in the United States. Their absence reignited speculation about the ongoing tensions that have reportedly simmered since the couple’s lavish 2022 wedding in Palm Beach, where disagreements over the bridal gown are said to have caused a lasting rift between the two families.
Caroline Peaty may have been missing, but Holly Ramsay invited Victoria Beckham to the hen do
It is, perhaps, a reminder of the heavy toll fame can exact on even the closest families. The Beckhams and Peatys alike show how celebrity magnifies ordinary conflicts into public dramas, forcing private hurts into the spotlight. Under such scrutiny, slights that might once have been mended can harden into something far more permanent, leaving families divided just when they should be celebrating together.
Indeed, a source close to the Peaty family told the Daily Mail that the swimmer has now banned his mother from his upcoming lavish wedding, which will be held at Bath Abbey at Christmas.
“It shows the toxicity of fame,” says PR expert Mark Borkowski. “With double the fame factor, as you’ve got here with Adam Peaty and the Ramsays, it’s double the pain. Dealing with a family feud on the eve of a wedding is bad enough, but it’s so much more wounding when it’s in the public domain. The fact that this has leaked shows a complete breakdown in trust.”
Peaty has been spending more time with future father-in-law Gordon Ramsay – hollyramsayy/Instagram
Some might view Peaty’s reported response as pretty astonishing given the Herculean efforts that his parents made in the service of his swimming career. The future champion was born into a modest, working-class family in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. The youngest of four children, his father Mark worked as a bricklayer and supermarket caretaker, and his mother was a nursery manager.
It was a battle for his family to finance his chosen sport. “Swimming is expensive,” Peaty told The Telegraph in 2021. “We found ways to make sure that I could afford to get to competitions, afford the race suits, which are £250 to £300.” Caroline bore the brunt of his gruelling schedule. As Peaty explained, she was “waking up at 4am to take me training half an hour away in Derby and then back again for school”. His mother was also “worn out”, Peaty said, by their lively household – which included his boundless energy, later attributed to his ADHD.
It was, summed up Peaty, “a massive sacrifice in terms of time and money”. Speaking at the World Championships in 2017, Caroline said of that sacrifice: “We did it gladly.” But they had to make difficult decisions like borrowing money to get him to the Olympic trials in 2012, the swimmer said this year.
They wouldn’t have been able to watch him win in Rio in 2016 if it hadn’t been for a broken washing machine. Peaty’s parents told their repairman about how they wanted to get tickets but prices had gone through the roof. The engineer told his employer, Domestic & General, who then paid for Peaty’s parents to get to Rio.
Peaty’s supporters at Rio 2016 included (from left)father Mark, then-girlfriend Anna and mother Caroline – Owen Humphreys
As well as sharing in glorious moments like Peaty bagging three Olympic gold medals, his family have been there through the hard times away from the pool. Peaty has been candid about his recent “three years of hell”, which included mental health challenges and issues with alcohol.
He took time off from swimming and entered Strictly in 2021. His mother was an extremely vocal fan: on social media, she branded Peaty’s mid-series exit a “fix”. Peaty said of her comment: “Mums are always going to support their own […] Bless her, I love her to bits, she loves me to bits.”
During that transformative period Peaty found faith as well. He began attending church regularly in 2023, after fellow swimmer Kyle Chalmers introduced him to Olympic chaplain Dr Ashley Null.
However, it’s notable that in recent interviews the family Peaty talks most eagerly about isn’t his own, but his future in-laws. Speaking to The Telegraph last year, Peaty enthused about the “high-level” chef Gordon Ramsay, who “inspires me to be successful”, as well as partner Holly, who is “part of the core team every single day”.
Peaty and Ramsay started dating in 2023 and were engaged a year later – Lucy North/PA Wire
Peaty seems very happy in Ramsay’s glamorous, high-end world. He attended the British Grand Prix at Silverstone with them in July, calling it “an unforgettable experience” on Instagram. Peaty might also have an eye on his next career chapter, which could be in more of the Ramsay celebrity or influencer vein, when he retires from competition.
Perhaps Peaty’s moving from one very different social circle to another is a contributing factor to the current wedding rift. But whatever the cause, “the drama won’t just die down,” predicts Borkowski, “especially with so much attention on the big Christmas wedding and constant posts on social media. For any member of the family unused to this level of attention, or who doesn’t have the same resilience as Adam, it’s going to be hell in the coming weeks.”
Unless this feud is resolved fast, the swimmer’s relationship with his family could sink like a stone.
