EXCLUSIVE: Shetland star Ashley Jensen secretly ties the knot – six years after her first husband took his own life

It has been six years since a ‘devastated’ Ashley Jensen confronted the horrible tragedy of dropping her husband to suicide.

However the actress, who’s presently starring as DI Ruth Calder in BBC drama Shetland, has discovered new happiness – and secretly tied the knot together with her long-term beau.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal the star, 54, married fellow actor Kenny Doughty in a ‘tremendous enjoyable’ and emotional ceremony in entrance of a detailed group of household and pals on the historic Priston Mill close to Bathtub.

Buddies say Ms Jensen, who made her title as Ricky Gervais’ sidekick Maggie in Extras and in US sitcom Ugly Betty, ‘barely stopped smiling all day’ and wore a shocking off-white robe with floral embroidery paired with coral platform sandals.

Former Vera star Doughty, 48, who met the actress on the set of 2017 BBC drama Love, Lies And Data additionally beamed all through the August 9 ceremony whereas wearing a powder-blue go well with with matching suede loafers.

‘The day regarded completely stunning,’ a buddy stated. ‘Ashley regarded simply so, so completely happy. She was smiling and laughing, it was merely idyllic. There seemed to be a lot love in that room.’ 

The pair have been joined by Ashley’s son Francis, 14, from her marriage to late husband Terence Beesley, who wore a floral tie that matched the one worn by Mr Doughty.

‘There was a really candy second when Francis posed for footage with Ashley and Kenny,’ the buddy added. ‘It was cute.’

Ms Jensen prompted hypothesis that she had turn out to be engaged to Mr Doughty after she was seen carrying a hoop – and trying to cowl her left hand – on The Graham Norton Present earlier this month.

Neither has publicly spoken about or confirmed their relationship, however it’s understood it started as a friendship earlier than blossoming into romance. 

The couple have been photographed collectively at showbusiness occasions, and have been noticed holding arms whereas having fun with an evening out collectively in Bathtub in 2021.

A supply stated: ‘He has been an immense help to her previously few years. They make a beautiful couple, and all their pals are completely delighted for them.’

Their marriage ceremony was all of the extra poignant given the grief confronted by Ms Jensen – who starred once more alongside Ricky Gervais in his award-winning After Life, a tragi-comic portrait of a person struggling to manage within the aftermath of his spouse’s demise from breast most cancers. 

It was in November 2017 that The Invoice and EastEnders actor Terence Beesley, Jensen’s accomplice of 18 years whom she had married in 2007, took his personal life within the house they shared with their son in Somerset.

He was 60. Ms Jensen discovered his physique within the household’s Mercedes after she returned from a day trip with Francis, then eight. 

She informed an inquest the next yr: ‘Terry and I had been collectively for 18 years, however I had no thought he was able to what he did.’ The couple had met in 1999 and married in California earlier than transferring again to the UK.

Yorkshire-born Mr Doughty was married to the English actress Caroline Carver for 11 years till they divorced in 2017.

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