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Love and marriage: Jane and Jeremy's story

Jane Villiers, 46, who married for the first time last December, forgot to say yes when divorcé Jeremy Thomas, 51, presented her with a ring and suggested she try it on her wedding figure

“I'd been hanging out the washing on the roof of his house in Greece and I was so surprised I just sat down. Then I felt wonderful.”

A film and television agent, she met him when he was looking for an agent for his first novel, Taking Leave, a bitter-sweet comedy which will be published by Timewell Press in June.

“I took her out to lunch and suddenly became aware that I quite fancied her. It began feeling like a date and I thought ‘Careful, I'd better not blow getting an agent',” says Jeremy.

She says she wasn't thinking of marriage but Jeremy – whose first experience had been brief and childless – considered it for some time before he asked her.

“I wanted to be with her, everyone I knew was saying: ‘Don't be an idiot, she's absolutely right for you'.”

Jane says, “I'd had my share of fun and disappointment but I'd always been attracted to the bad boys and I felt Jeremy wasn't one of those. I thought, ‘I could really be with this person', it just felt so natural.”

Although Jane goes to the office while Jeremy works at home, they have a very traditional division of tasks: she cooks the meals and he sorts out the bills.

“Being a writer at home is tricky psychologically, because no matter that Jane is very independent, a tiny part of her feels that I should be coming home at 7pm dressed in fur and carrying my latest kill. Every man needs his shed,” says Jeremy.

And luckily he has one – or at least a room at the top of the house.

“That suits us both fine,” says Jane, who found the most traumatic part of her marriage was selling their bachelor flats and buying a house together.

“I'm a control freak used to doing everything my own way and he's very messy. It's been an adjustment and it hasn't always been easy.”

The big day

They married in Chelsea register office just before Christmas. Jane wore a turquoise velvet coat and, that evening, changed into red velvet and ostrich feathers for a blessing followed by a party at Thames Rowing Club.

This article was created: 14 July 2006.
This article was last edited: 14 December 2006.

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