Former Rangers player Jermain Defoe gushed about his Glasgow sweetheart Donna Tierney, and how her family won him over, as stunning photos of the pair's lavish wedding are released. We told how the lovebirds said I do at plush Cliveden House in Berkshire earlier this month.
The star-studded event saw the 39-year-old striker and Donna, 40, say 'I do' before throwing a party fit for royalty with flamethrowers and fire-eaters while a marquee on the 376-acre estate was transformed into a nightclub. With a crescendo of bagpipes followed by Caribbean food in the evening, guests celebrated the coming together of two families and their cultures, reports the Daily Record.
From their honeymoon in the Maldives, Rangers hero Defoe reminisced on how he and Donna first got together and how the love from her Glaswegian family sealed the deal. He also maintains his move to the Ibrox side in 2019 was 'fate' as it led to him 'meeting his future wife'.
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He told OK! Magazine: "We met years ago when I was playing for Sunderland and I messaged her (Donna) on Instagram, I sent her a DM. We had a general chit-chat but hadn’t spoken for ages.
“When I started playing for Rangers in 2019 I remembered Donna was from Glasgow and touched base with her again. I kept looking at her sexy pictures on Instagram.
"But we didn’t meet until January 2021 when Donna asked if I could give her a signed football shirt for a charity do.”
He added: "I always knew at some stage I was going to meet the right one and at the back end of my career. I go to Glasgow, play for Rangers and meet my future wife.”
Donna, owns her own natural skincare business, Marinical.com. She added: “It took a couple of years because I was playing hard to get.”
Jermain knew Donna was the one when he met her family in Glasgow.
He said: “When she took me to her mum and dad’s house, just to see how she was with Olivia, and how she was with her mum, how close she was with her dad and her sister Charlene, just to see the love she gives her family and the love she gets back, it reminded me of the relationship I have with my family. When I saw that, and knowing how affectionate and loving she is anyway, that was it for me.”
Donna stresses that the feelings were mutual.
She added: “It was the same for me. I’m a big family person and seeing the way he loved his mum and sister – he goes above and beyond for them and always has. I connect with people on a mental level and with Jermain I connected with his mind more than anything else.”
Jermain and Donna described their big day as “like a movie”. But mum-of-one Donna hadn’t always planned on having an extravagant wedding.
“I’ve always been very independent and business focused,” she said. “I was taken by surprise, but obviously it took all these years to meet the right person and it all just felt right.”
Jermain proposed at Glasgow’s lavish Blythswood Square Hotel last August. He hired the penthouse and kitted it out with heart-shaped balloons, the words “Marry Me” in lights and rose petals scattered on the floor.
“If I’m going to do something I’m going to do it the right way or I’m not going to do it at all,” he said.
“You’re only meant to do it once and it’s got to be with somebody that’s so special.”
Donna added: “Even as he was asking me, I was getting down on one knee, too, saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes’.”
Jermain said: “I was on one knee, and there was a heart shape on the floor, then she started getting down on one knee. I was like, ‘What are you doing?’”
Jermain is now a proud step-dad to Donna’s 12-year-old daughter Olivia, who the football ace paid a beautiful tribute to in his speech at their wedding.
“Everyone keeps talking about how special Jermain’s speech was,” Donna said.
“They said it showed how much he appreciates me. The bit that got me was when he spoke about my daughter, who means the world to me. That made me feel extra-special. My daughter loves Jermain so much, he’s such a good stepdad.
"He’s amazing. I couldn’t have asked or wished for anything better than the way he treats Olivia.”
Thew newlyweds are on cloud nine and still getting used to 'being married'.
Jermain said: “When I’m like, ‘This is my wife, Donna,’ it’s still weird but amazing. I feel like a proper grown-up.”
While Donna added: “It hasn’t sunk in yet. It still feels like a dream.”
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