Marriage is for life (says the man who has said 'I do' to Margaret, Jeanette, Lesley, Kathy, Sue, Usha, Wan and now Weng)
At 56 and with eight weddings behind him, Ron Sheppard is Britain's most-married man. He tells Elizabeth Day why he keeps tying the knot - again and again
Ron Sheppard is explaining the key to a successful marriage. "I'm a firm believer in that old saying: 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again'," he says, his eyes blinking earnestly behind a pair of tinted bifocals. "Of course, in my case, I've tried seven times."
Ron, who has earned the dubious accolade of Britain's Most-Married Man at the precocious age of 56, is very much hoping that it will be eighth-time lucky. With seven failed marriages behind him, he is becoming increasingly sick of weddings.
"Oh, I've had enough of all that now," he says. "I know the vows off by heart. None of my family comes any more and they stopped buying me presents after the third one. At my last wedding, you couldn't move for the paparazzi. A local radio DJ from the Isle of Wight even tried to gatecrash it and broadcast it live on air with his mobile phone."
Sadly, Isle of Wight residents were deprived of the chance to eavesdrop on Ron's register office nuptials to Weng, his 27-year-old Filipino bride, last December, but they were able to catch up on the shenanigans of the newly-wed Sheppards during a subsequent round of daytime television appearances. The latest of these, on Channel 5's Trisha chat-show, was recorded last week and Ron is still unhappy about it.
