James Purefoy marries art historian Jessica Adams

James Purefoy, the Rome actor, has married Jessica Adams in a low-key ceremony in Somerset

James Purefoy has married Jessica Adams, an art historian Credit: Photo: REX

During his bachelor days, James Purefoy complained that an officious car insurance broker upped his premiums when he saw him photographed with Gwyneth Paltrow and concluded that the actor was leading a racy life.

Hopefully, now that he has married Jessica Adams, the mother of his 20-months-old daughter, Rose, the insurance company might take the view things are quietening down. Purefoy, 50, well-known for his big part in Rome, married the art historian in Middle Chinnock, Somerset. “Our whole family was there and everyone enjoyed a wonderful day,” James’s stepfather, Commander Peter Libby, says. Purefoy has been courting Jessica since 2007.

Bercow’s box

Mandrake accepts that John Bercow does not in any way, shape or form possess a “Napoleon complex,” but the man who needs a secretary for his secretary clearly can’t be expected to sit with hoi polloi at Wimbledon.

Thus, the Speaker has just had to own up to accepting freebie seats in the Royal Box at Wimbledon (suitably elevated, I trust, to afford him a view) to the value of £7,510. His busy schedule notwithstaning, he managed to toddle along three times to Wimbledon this year.