Plans for Maddison Brudenell’s wedding day are slowly taking shape. The bride intends to walk down the aisle at St Mary the Virgin Church, nestled in the Chiltern Hills, a perfect spot for an autumn ceremony.
Celebrations will follow afterwards at The Grove, the exquisite south Oxfordshire home of her beloved grandmother, Lady Pamela Hicks — who is, of course, daughter of Earl Mountbatten, cousin of the late Prince Philip and third cousin of the late Queen.
Guests, no doubt, will enjoy the last rays of sunshine in the lush gardens of The Grove, created by Maddison’s grandfather, the society designer David Hicks. Her aunt, India Hicks, is likely to be there too, to raise her glass in praise of the happy couple.
Maddison Brudenell with her fiance Bret Kapetanov, who is a Canadian welder. Maddison’s grandmother Lady Pamela Hicks — who is daughter of Earl Mountbatten, cousin of the late Prince Philip
It’s fair to say, however, that the dashing groom comes from a rather different world to his well-connected bride.
For Maddison — a striking brunette, who bears no small resemblance to her maternal Mountbatten heirs with her enviable cheekbones and handsome jawline — is marrying not a Duke or a Viscount, but a Canadian welder called Bret. While Bret may not appear in Debrett’s, so contented are the couple that Maddison’s relations have given their hearty approval of the match.
Lady Pamela — who was, famously, one of the Queen’s bridesmaids and, later, one of Her Majesty’s ladies in waiting, and is now the oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria — is a particular fan, it seems.
‘I’ve met her quite a few times, and we get along really well,’ says Bret. ‘She loves Bret,’ adds Maddison, 29. ‘She always has a big smile for him when he enters the room.’
Theirs is quite the love story, as was evident when I met the besotted couple to talk about their unlikely union for the first time last week.
And while both are aware that their different backgrounds may provoke comment, they say such things are ‘irrelevant’, even if Bret — whose surname is Kapetanov and was raised on a sprawling farm in Canada — does joke it’s funny to think he’s marrying someone who had a close relationship with the late Queen, whose profile still decorates his twenty dollar notes.
‘I respect where Maddison comes from, but I fell in love with her brain more than anything, and her heart; that’s what I really truly fell in love with,’ he says.
Maddison, in turn, was struck by the love Bret inspires among his family and friends. ‘From my perspective, you could just see how cherished he was,’ she says. ‘It was so clear to me that he is a king in the eyes of his family and friends, and that’s more important than any formal title.
‘I was raised to respect where I came from, but I was also told you’re no better than anyone else. So I have never and would never think of him as anything “less.’
You could argue that it’s difficult for a Mountbatten to do anything other than marry down. After all, some describe their family as more royal than the royals.
Maddison pictured as a baby with her aunt India Hicks and and grandmother Lady Pamela
So how does a hunky, down-to-earth Canadian adapt to a family where everyone is a ‘somebody’? Maddison’s paternal grandfather John Brudenell was a royal obstetrician, assisting with the births of Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, as well as helping to deliver Princess Margaret’s two children.
Meanwhile, her mother Edwina was a goddaughter of the late Queen, while her great-grandfather Louis was Viceroy of India entrusted with overseeing the country’s transition to independence in 1947.
To Maddison, though, they were the quintessence of a happy, supportive family. Growing up at their Oxfordshire home, she has fond memories of regular visits to Lady Pamela.
‘By the time I was old enough to drive a quad bike, around ten or so, I could literally hop over the fields and turn up and head for the pantry, which was always just full of stuff. It was so fun,’ she recalls. ‘I definitely thought of her as a special figure in my life, but at the same time she was also just Grandma.’ An early memory is being taken, aged six, to the Trooping the Colour by Lady Pamela, and standing next to the late Queen Mother on the royal balcony, waving at the gathered crowds in the Mall.
‘The Queen came into the room beforehand to greet everybody and we all curtsied to her, and then when the parade was going on, the Queen Mother asked me how many horses I thought there were,’ she remembers. ‘I was really nervous, and said something like “A lot’’.’
Her life is peppered with other royal anecdotes, from a drinks party hosted by the Queen — whom she recalls as ‘warm and cosy’ — to waving at her royal third cousins Princes William and Harry at polo matches. With a smile, she recalls chatting to Princess Anne while expecting her first child, Daphne, and receiving a characteristically forthright piece of advice. ‘I was very pregnant, and Princess Anne asked me what I wanted to do with my life,’ she recalls. ‘I told her I was going to be a mum and she said I couldn’t just do that. I went red in the face, but she was right of course.’
Her family were also invited to the state funeral held for the late Queen in September 2022 at Westminster Abbey. ‘It was such a beautiful process to be part of,’ she says. ‘Being in the committal service you could hear a pin drop in between the speeches.’
Maddison with her first husband Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo, a DJ turned musician of Nigerian heritage who also went by the name ‘Jazz Purple’
What makes Maddison and Bret’s love story even more captivating is that this will be her second marriage — and that her first provoked similar surprise.
Indeed, just 18 months ago, Maddison was truly in the doldrums: newly separated from her first husband — Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo, a DJ turned musician of Nigerian heritage who also went by the name ‘Jazz Purple’ — and mother to three children, then aged between one and five, all at the tender age of 28.
‘I think even my parents thought I was a write off,’ the model admits.
Then, in October 2022, while in the throes of her divorce, Maddison met Bret, also 29. It took them a mere afternoon to realise they were soulmates. Within eight months, he had proposed and moved his entire life across the ocean to the UK — the first time he’d ever set foot in the country — to set up home with Maddison and her children in Oxford.
While Lady Pamela did not attend Maddison’s first wedding in Manchester — ‘she never really leaves Kensington when in London’ — Maddison is delighted her grandmother has welcomed the couple to her gardens in Oxfordshire for their forthcoming big day, ensuring she can be present.
The female Mountbattens have always played a big guiding role in Maddison’s life: when as a teenager at an all-girls boarding school in Berkshire she set her cap on becoming a model, she turned to her aunt —and godmother — India Hicks for advice.
‘She was always a really exciting figure in my life, I’d be flicking through a magazine and see her,’ she recalls. ‘She tried to warn me the industry is really tough, but I didn’t really listen. From 16 I started doing test shoots and, as soon as I left school, just jumped into modelling.’
Hired by the international agency Storm, she was successful, modelling for everyone from Ralph Lauren — she recalls being introduced to him by India at his New York office, and being told she was ‘pretty’ — to Cartier and Dior. But being forced to keep her weight down took its toll.
By 18 she had left the industry, to study psychology at the University of Cardiff before deciding on an acting career. She appeared in several London plays, among them playing the titular role of Hedda Gabler at a Notting Hill theatre.
By then she had already met Olaoluwa, the man who was to become her husband. After a whirlwind romance the couple married in a low-key ceremony when Maddison was just 20, to the surprise of her parents.
‘I do remember them worrying I was too young, but I was headstrong, and I think I was swept up on the whole romance of it all,’ she says.
‘They were very supportive.’
Within three months of the wedding — and now living in Manchester — she was pregnant with Daphne, now seven.
Another daughter Phebe, now five, soon followed, but Maddison admits her marriage was not plain sailing. ‘Essentially, there was a difference in the lifestyle that my ex said he wanted and the reality, and that was a struggle that had its peaks and troughs,’ she says.
It was this in part that prompted her decision to leave Olaoluwa during the first Covid lockdown, only to discover she was pregnant with her son Moses, now three.
‘I decided to proceed with the pregnancy on the understanding that I was already on my own, and I had the girls already. I was willing to walk that path, but throughout that year we made a go of things again,’ she says.
‘So we tried, and ultimately it didn’t work, so we broke up when Moses was one.’ Six months after their break up in October 2022, Maddison — complete with her children in tow — travelled to Toronto to visit friends. She was introduced to Bret at a lunch and both were instantly smitten.
Fate helped their romance along: when her flight home was delayed, she found she had a few hours to kill in the Canadian city.
‘I called Bret and he said he would come and show me and the kids around,’ Maddison recalls. ‘I was a hot mess with all this luggage, three kids. I had one in the pram, one on my chest and Daphne holding my hand; but he was totally unfazed.
‘By the end of the afternoon I didn’t want to leave.’
By then they had already sneaked their first kiss when her children weren’t looking. As she boarded her flight home that night, it was with Bret’s promise that he was coming to England to see her ringing in her ears. ‘We were texting from the moment we had to part ways,’ says Bret. ‘I knew I just wanted to be with her.’
Maddison, though, says she was all too aware of the reality of day-to-day life with three small children. Bret may have been raised in a loving multi-generational family, which included his widowed uncle’s four young children — but she knew that to take on another man’s family would be a huge emotional leap.
Hence her quizzing Bret ‘endlessly’ during their subsequent lengthy transatlantic phone calls.
‘I was so serious about getting to the bottom of every aspect, and maybe asking several times, checking the answers — what about the reality of children screaming in the night, of cancelled plans, all that stuff,’ she reflects.
Bret’s answers were satisfying enough for her to invite him to the UK for Christmas. He recalls arriving jet-lagged to be whisked to dinner with Maddison’s mother, Edwina and her two siblings Jordan and Rowan, and on to meet her father Jeremy the next day.
‘It was a case of rip that Band Aid off,’ he laughs today. Thankfully her family were immediately reassured by Bret’s kindly relaxed presence.
‘Of course, they had their questions and concerns, but also when I told them about the extent to which Bret was willing to commit, they were “Wow, really?’’’ laughs Maddison.
Bret’s stay was enough of a success for him to extend it from his original intended fortnight’s break to six weeks. On returning to Canada, he immediately applied for a work visa to enable him to come back here for good.
While he waited for his paperwork, Maddison flew to Canada last Easter and met Bret’s extended family. ‘I remember saying to one of them “Is he for real?’’ He replied that he’d never seen Bret like this.’
During her visit, Bret — who had asked for Maddison’s father’s blessing and bought the engagement ring — went down on one knee. ‘It was so romantic,’ she recalls holding her fiancé’s hand.
Bret moved into her Oxford home for good last April, finding engineering work — as well as welding and fabrication, he is also an industrial mechanic — and getting to know the locals, to whom he is known as ‘the Canadian’.
‘I was at the top of my field when I left, but I am having to start at the bottom again,’ he says. ‘But that’s cool, I don’t mind.’
A familiar figure at school pick up, he is now a hands-on stepfather to Maddison’s brood and the engagement ring he bought for her was garnished with three diamonds, one for each of her children.
But, as Maddison reveals today, a fourth diamond is set to be added to that ring: she is now eighteen weeks pregnant with their first child together and is due to give birth in August.
Lady Pamela, apparently, has seen her scan pictures and declared the baby to be ‘very handsome’.
‘We did find out I was pregnant last summer but sadly I had a miscarriage, which was something I’d not been through before and was really devastating,’ Maddison reveals. ‘So we feel so happy to have been given another chance.’
That sentiment of course, applies equally to the unlikely but charming love story of the great-granddaughter of the first Earl Mountbatten of Burma. A touch unconventional it may be, but few could doubt its fervour.