'It was the girls' idea,' says Penny in her first interview on this most sensitive of subjects. 'Not in that way.' He roars with laughter but knows he is enormously fortunate in the way life has turned out for him and his family.įor not only is Penny, from whom he was divorced eight years ago, incredibly supportive of the union, but she is actually going to give her former husband away at the ceremony.
'We really are a funny threesome,' quips Lord Ivar as he shows me into the drawing room. This is why we are all here in this, shall we say, rather unconventional family's Grade I listed home near the village of Uffculme in Devon.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten (right) with his fiancee James Coyle and former wife lady Penny Mountbatten at their home in Uffculme in Devonįor the sake of their daughters, Ella, 22, Alix, 20, and 15-year-old Luli, Lord Ivar, Penny and James, who now considers the girls to be his children, too, want the announcement to be handled with dignity.
