Ben Foden was dating new wife Jackie Belanoff-Smith for three months before whirlwind wedding, claims new father in law
BEN Foden was dating his new wife Jackie Belanoff-Smith for three months before their whirlwind wedding, claims his new father-in-law.
The rugby star stunned fans earlier this week when he announced that he had tied the knot after "a little over two weeks" - but lawyer Peter has refuted the claims.
He said: "I believe it was a bit more than a fortnight", adding that his daughter would never marry a man that she'd only known for two weeks.
Peter went on to reveal that Jackie started dating Ben at the start of the summer, during her summer-long sabbatical from the upscale perfume company that she founded.
He also explained that Ben had asked for his blessing to marry the beauty.
He told the : ";She met him at the beginning of summer.
"The wedding wasn’t a surprise.
"He called me to ask for my blessing and I gave it. I said: 'I want her to have a long and successful marriage.'"
Ben, 34, confirmed his and Jackie's wedding two days ago, sharing a series of loved-up snaps to his social media page.
In the post's caption, he admitted that people would say he and Jackie "are mad or crazy or even fools" for their whirlwind romance as he gushed: "@snackyjax and I had only been dating seriously for a little over two weeks before deciding to get married.
"But when someone like her comes in to your life, why would I wait?";
He also claimed that his ex-wife Una Healy, who he shares two children with, had given him her blessing to remarry just one year after their split.
Boasting about his New Yorker bride, Ben continued: "Jackie is the greatest human being I’ve ever come across - she’s beautiful inside and out, intelligent, charming, funny, generous, kind, gentle, energetic the list goes on.
"She will be a great step mum to Aoife and Tadhg and offers me a future I can’t wait to explore with her."
The Sun Online exclusively revealed that Una's The Saturdays' bandmates had "rallied round" the shocked star after the news went public.
A source told us: "The girls have all been there for Una. As soon as they heard what happened, Rochelle, Mollie, Vanessa and Frankie were straight on their phones as they were worried about their friend.
"They have rallied around to support her as they can only imagine what she is feeling.
"She's a strong woman, but her friends have let her know that they will be there for her through this as it is still a shock to the system that Ben would remarry so soon."
Una and Ben married in 2012 and are mum and dad to seven-year-old Aoife and four-year-old Tadhg.
Ben - who moved to New York to play rugby - previously admitted that he had cheated on the singer in an interview with .
We also revealed he had sent texts about 'filthy' sex to a reality star weeks before marrying Jackie.
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He previously said: "At the moment anything that’s published about me is never very good and pretty rightly so because I was the one who committed adultery.
"At the same time, it wasn’t the only reason for our divorce to go through. It’s not ideal, but we’re very amicable, we’re getting through it, we’re not the first people in the world to get divorced."
Una has since moved on with Irish sportsman David Breen, who she went public with in December.
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