Melanie Chisholm, the Spice Girl the world knows as Sporty, married her Australian boyfriend Chris Dingwall not once but twice, and the first time she did it in secret, right here in Sydney.
The 52-year-old singer only went public with the bigger celebration, held last weekend in England’s Lake District, but former bandmate Victoria Beckham has now let slip that the real legal wedding happened quietly in Australia weeks earlier.
Beckham told British Vogue she found out almost by accident over dinner with Chisholm. “I was actually having dinner with Melanie and asked her what she was up to,” Beckham said. “She very casually told me she was leaving for Australia in two days and getting married.”
There was a last minute wardrobe drama too, sorted in true friendship fashion.
“When I asked what she was wearing, she mentioned she had actually ordered one of my dresses but that it didn’t quite fit, and she didn’t have time to get it altered before leaving,” Beckham said. “I happened to have that exact dress in my own wardrobe and offered to lend it to her.”
So Chisholm flew to Sydney and quietly became a wife wearing a borrowed Victoria Beckham Lace Cami Dress, a gesture that meant her old friend and bandmate was somehow present even from the other side of the world.
That quiet Sydney moment then shaped everything that followed. Beckham went on to design the gown Chisholm wore for the larger, public wedding in the Lake District on Saturday, a white backless floor length dress.
“It was a gift from Victoria; they are really close. Victoria would have loved to have been there if she could,” a source told The Mail on Sunday. “It was her great pleasure to make the dress for Mel.”
Beckham herself could not attend the Lake District ceremony as she was in the United States with husband David for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, so there was no full Spice Girls reunion, though Geri Halliwell-Horner, Melanie Brown and Emma Bunton were all there.
Chisholm’s 17 year old daughter Scarlett, whose father is her ex partner Thomas Starr, stood by as bridesmaid.
The English countryside ceremony had its own unscripted charm, with cows from a neighbouring farm charging toward the venue mid vows, leaving guests looking “alarmed”.
“Mel swore she would never get married, having a big do wasn’t really for her,” a source said. “It is the perfect venue for them, totally out of the way but in the most beautiful place, and everyone had the most fantastic time.”
Chisholm and Dingwall met about two years ago on the celebrity dating app Raya, and she was living in London at the time with a DJ tour planned in Australia when she decided the Sydney based Dingwall was worth the trip.
Turns out he was worth two weddings.
Images: Instagram/Wikimedia Commons
