bleakley wedding secrets

£1.30 (RoI €2.00)
19 June 2011
SUNDAY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
n Their big day won’t be a
lavish Hello! magazine affair
n The call Frank made to
her parents for permission
n How Christine knew that
Lampard was the man for her
TURN TO PAGES 102,103&104
TURN TO PAGES 4&5 FOR THE FULL STORY
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ENGAGEMENT:
Christine and Frank
www.sundaylife.co.uk
4 | NEWS
Sunday Life 19 JUNE 2011
SHOWBIZ
‘Christine and Frank’s
quiet day, not a lavish
MUM MINA TALKS TO
ABOUT
HER DAUGHTER’S WEDDING PLANS
JOHN McGURK
CHRISTINE Bleakley’s proud mum has
revealed the inside story of her TV star
daughter’s engagement to Chelsea star
Frank Lampard.
In a wide-ranging interview with her
favourite Sunday newspaper, Newtownards
woman Mina Bleakley told:
n why Christine and Frank’s wedding WON’T
be a lavish Hello! magazine style affair;
n how Christine knew Frank was the man for
her;
n how the couple haven’t begun checking out
wedding venues, contrary to reports;
n why Frank was really in their local church in
Newtownards;
n how Mina and husband Ricky were won over
by ‘gentleman’ Frank despite their worries
about some footballers’ reputations;
n how old-fashioned Frank phoned the couple
from the USA them to ask for Christine’s hand;
and
n what Ricky told his future son-in-law.
Mina spoke to Sunday Life at her modest
semi-detached home on Friday, telling how
her family was “absolutely delighted” with
the news that Frank proposed to Christine,
32, during their two-week holiday in sunny
California.
“Frank phoned us from Los Angeles. He
spoke to both of us and he asked our permission to marry Christine.
“We said to him, ‘Certainly, that’s brilliant’, as we know you are fond of each
other.
“Ricky also said to him, ‘As long as you
look after each other and you are good to
each other’. That’s what matters to him.”
Daybeak presenter Christine, who is very
close to her mum and dad, then telephoned
home after Frank popped the question
AND placed a stunning diamond engagement ring onto her finger!
“When Christine called, she was so excited that she could hardly talk. She was so
chuffed, really over the moon — so delighted.”
Mina has no doubt that Frank is perfect
for Christine — in spite of the bed-hopping
antics of some soccer stars.
“Oh yes, there is the Ryan Giggs thing at
the moment. I know that some footballers
have this reputation. So, people are wary.
But put it like this. Frank is not stupid and
is genuinely a really nice guy.
“He is so good natured. You also read
about footballers that they forget about
their children. But Frank certainly doesn’t.
He looks after his children very well.
“I have realised that Frank is the one for
her for a long time. They are on the same
RING KING: Frank has made Christine so happy
wavelength in that they just hit it off
together. Christine loves to laugh and
Frank makes her laugh.
“She is not intimidated by the amount of
money that he has or anything like that.
That wouldn’t matter to Christine. She is
not there for the money.
“She has always been independent, from
the time she was a wee girl.
“She said that it (finding the one) is like
playing that game of cards, 21 (Pontoon).
“If you go over 21, you go bust. Some people settle at 15 or 18 or whatever, when they
need 21. Well Christine said that she now
has her 21, in Frank.”
Christine previously had high profile
romances with ice hockey star Curtis
Bowen, Belfast businessman Mark Beirne
and was engaged to Dublin restaurateur
Christian Stokes.
Asked if Christine had been unlucky in
love until meeting Frank, Mina revealed:
“Aw, yes, but it was more of her doing. It
was always her who would break it off. It
was never boyfriends, as far as I remember.
She hadn’t found her Number 21.”
The youthful retired mum-of-two is now
hoping to go to London to celebrate
Christine and Frank’s engagement “maybe
next week”.
But Mina is adamant that the loved-up
couple will make their own wedding
arrangements.
She pooh-poohed reports that Christine
and Frank had checked out Ballyblack
Presbyterian Church in Newtownards and
Galgorm Manor Hotel in Ballymena for
their wedding.
Explained Mina: “She has not been
round looking for wedding venues, or
churches anywhere in Northern Ireland.
“She never went to Galgorm Manor with
a wedding planner. She was back home
with Frank last October and that is the only
time he was in Ballyblack Church with us.
“They went because it was our harvest
thanksgiving and also our wedding
anniversary.
“I don’t think she would say to me
whether to have the wedding soon, or to
leave it for a while. But I think she will
say ‘we are thinking of...what do you
think?
“But, put it like this, she wouldn’t want an over the top wedding.
I would imagine that she would
want it relatively quiet.
“She is not one to show off
at all. She just likes to get on
with her job and her life.
She is from Northern
Ireland and you know what
we are like in Northern
Ireland.
“So there would
be nothing like a
big Hello! or OK!
magazine wedding or all that.
Absolutely not,”
she laughed.
Added Mina
who will celebrate
her 40th wedding
anniversary with
Ricky next year: “If
I thought she was
going down the
wrong road, I would be
the first to tell her.”
[email protected]
19 JUNE 2011 Sunday Life
www.sundaylife.co.uk
NEWS | 5
EXCLUSIVE
wedding will be a
Hello! style event’
GORGEOUS GIRLS: Stunning Nicola and cracker Christine pictured with mum Mina, who could pass for a third sister
OUR BEAUTIFUL BIKINI BABE IS
JUST FINE BY US, SAYS FAMILY
BIKINI pics of Christine splashed across newspapers don’t get us all hot and bothered anymore,
says mum Mina.
The Daybreak TV show presenter was snapped
by the paparazzi in skimpy bikini costumes while
on holidays with Frank Lampard in California
last week.
But those secretly snapped photos of the
loved-up pair kissing and caressing don’t
upset down to earth Mina.
She said: “Christine is a very down to
earth girl, as you know. She is not a
show off, or anything like that.
“She doesn’t want to be in those
papers in a bikini. She hasn’t asked
anyone to take those pictures.
“It annoys us that those pictures are being taken without
permission but that is the
way it is these days,
isn’t it.
“Other
than
that though, it
doesn’t annoy us
at all. Put it like
this, she is not
topless!
“Christine is a
lot better able to
cope with all this
than I would.”
STUNNER: Christine shows off her incredible figure
GAIL HENDERSON PAGE 12 SHOWBIZ LIFE PAGES 22&23
MUMMY’S BOY: Frank and Pat
SUPERSTAR’S
HEARTACHE
OVER MUM
SOCCER star Frank Lampard
has opened his heart to
Christine’s mum — about the
pain of losing his own mum.
The England international,
who turns 33 tomorrow, was
heartbroken after the death of
Pat Lampard from pneumonia
in April 2008.
Devoted Frank rushed to be
at his mother’s bedside and
missed a series of matches to
be with her in her final days.
Mina told Sunday Life:
“Frank is a very homely kind of
guy. I know that he was very
fond of his mommy who died.
“He has talked a lot about
his mommy to me and about
her dying of pneumonia.
“He also adores his daddy
(ex-West Ham and England star
Frank senior) and his two
sisters and their families.
“Whenever you are talking to
him, you don’t think of him as a
big footballer with lots of
money. It is just like talking to
you!”
FRANKLY, THE
ACCENT CAN
BE PROBLEM
CHARMING Christine with
gentlemanly behaviour is not
the Only Way for Essex boy,
Frank Lampard to win her
heart.
For Mina has revealed that
the Romford born ‘Romeo’ also
sometimes woos his ‘Juliet’,
Christine — with a ‘Norn Iron’
accent!
“My other daughter, Nicola
bought Frank a great teeshirt
with all those sayings from
Northern Ireland like ‘what
about yee?’
“It was so funny hearing him
trying to say ‘what about yee’ in
a Northern Ireland accent.
“We had such a laugh asking
him to repeat them all. But he
got the hang of it, all right and
wasn’t too bad.
“Of course, Christine has him
saying Northern Ireland things
anyway — teaching him some
of the lingo.
“Once, when he came over
here with Christine, they met
someone in Belfast.
“Christine found this guy
difficult enough herself to
understand. But Frank found it
impossible!
“So Christine had to repeat
everything to him. But he
understands us okay!”, she
laughed.
Frank is also considered to
be one of the brightest men in
football — he has an IQ of more
than 150.