Subject: Strange but true

Woman bridesmaid to ex-husband and mother

A woman whose husband left her for her mother was a bridesmaid at their wedding, it has emerged. (Picture Attached)

Alison Smith discovered her husband, George Greenhowe, 21, in bed with her mother, Pat, 44, just 10 days after their marriage in Angus in November 2001.

The 20-year-old filed for divorce naming her own mother in the papers but then managed to forgive the pair and gave them her blessing to wed.

Miss Smith told Closer magazine: "At first I was disgusted. But I gradually fell out of love with George and realised how happy he and mum were. "He never apologised for what he did but everyone makes mistakes." Her ex-husband proposed last year to her mother but the wedding in March at the register office in Arbroath, Angus, was stopped because Scots law rules that a man may not marry his former wife's mother if his ex-wife is still alive.

The devastated couple, who had set up a love nest in a caravan, had to cancel the ceremony and a reception for 50 guests in the Seaforth Hotel, in Arbroath.

They had been planning to go abroad to tie the knot until Closer magazine stepped in and arranged a humanist ceremony, which does not have legal status. Miss Smith finally became bridesmaid for her mother and ex-husband when they exchanged vows at Arbroath's Cliffburn Hotel on September 2.

The 20-year-old said she now had mixed feelings about marriage but remained positive about her unusual experience.

"I think it's a mug's game. I may have lost a husband but I've gained a father," she said.