Mixed-class marriages expose harsh truths for couples

Only a foolhardy woman would organise a hen night that sweeps in her mum, sisters, and her mum's best friend and assistant, but glaringly omit to ask her future mother-in-law.

- Rowan Pelling, The Independent

So, why did Holly Ramsay (daughter of chef Gordon) apparently open the door to a lifetime of conflict and pain by not asking her fiance Adam Peaty's mum Caroline, who helped steer her son to Olympic gold? The answer, as so often in the UK, could well be class.

The Ramsays have shot up in the world and now belong to that weird upper echelon of society comprised famous people, the seriously wealthy and the posh. Needless to say, Holly was privately educated from the word go, attending Montessori nursery school and hanging out with the Beckham kids. Adam, by contrast, comes from a very modest background. Raised in Wattisham, Suffolk, his mother Caroline was a nursery manager, while his dad Mark worked as a bricklayer and then a supermarket caretaker. This meant they had to make sacrifices to fund their son’s sporting talent, including Caroline rising at 4am to take him to swimming practice.