Former Gladiators star Diane Youdale has tied the knot (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Gladiators icon Diane Youdale has revealed she’s now married after deciding to keep her recent wedding under wraps from even some of her closest family and friends.
The TV icon, who was known as Jet during her time on Gladiators, joined the game show in 1992 when she was 22 years old.
However, she had to leave four years later after suffering a neck injury.
Earlier this month Diane, 53, shared she was set to walk down the aisle with fiancée Zoe Gilbert, 48, after the pair first met in their local Tesco.
Now Diane has shared they’ve tied the knot, marrying in a secret ceremony last week after a year-and-a-half of dating.
‘We’re married! We kept it very, very quiet,’ she said.
Diane and Zoe met in a supermarket last year (Picture: Zoe Gilbert/ Instagram)
‘Literally nine people on the planet knew.
‘When you’re in the public eye – whether it was like me and it was literally last millennium, or in this day and age on social media – things just run away with you,’ she said when speaking to Closer magazine.
She added: ‘I’m in my 50s now and we’re both very private people and we thought, “You know, let’s just keep this thing quiet”.’
Diane appeared on Gladiators from 1992 until 1996 (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
The former athlete, who later re-trained as a psychotherapist, explained just how small the celebration was.
‘We’ve not let even our nearest and dearest know because we wanted to keep it really tiny,’ she continued.
Diane also shared she ‘cried a lot’ during the ceremony, which she labelled as very low-key.
‘It was casual, I didn’t wear a dress. I wore a nice boho-type top, trousers and a beautiful pair of sandals,’ she recalled.
‘Zoe wore her chinos, brogues, and a nice shirt with a waistcoat. She looked ever so smart. I cried a lot.’
When sharing the details of her relationship on the Chillin’ with Ice podcast in early July, Diane said that she ‘didn’t give a damn’ about what people thought of her love life.
‘I’m safe and I’m loved and there’s no threat to me anymore and that’s what means the world to me.’
Diane was previously in a relationship with Gladiators co-star Hunter (James Crossley), back when they were on the hit series, which originally aired from 1992 until 2000.
Gladiators returns to BBC later this year.
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She met her wife in their local Tesco last year.
