The Mountbatten beauty getting hitched to a Canadian welder... so what DO her ... trends now

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.

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.

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.’

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

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