Ashley Cole marries partner Sharon Canu in lavish Italian wedding

The couple have been together since 2014

Ashley Cole and Sharon Canu arrive at PrettyLittleThing X Hailey Baldwin at Catch on November 5, 2018 (Getty Images)

Ashley Cole has tied the knot with partner Sharon Canu in a lavish Italian wedding attended by celebrity friends over the weekend.

The former footballer, 42, wed the model at Hotel La Vicchia Posta in Ladispoli, with famous faces including Frank and Christine Lampard, John Terry, and Sam Faiers in attendance.

The couple got engaged last March, after nearly eight years of dating. They share two children, Jaxon, six, and Grace, four.

Cole’s second marriage comes nearly 13 years after his divorce from Girls Aloud star Cheryl. The pair were married from 2006 to 2010, with the former X-Factor judge citing “unreasonable behaviour” as the reason for the split.

Photos and videos posted by those who attended the big day showed the couple exchanging their vows under a floral arch with the sea in the background.

Cole wore a black tuxedo with a black shirt and bowtie, while Canu wore an off-the-shoulder wedding gown with a lace bodice and puff sleeves, with a long floor-length veil adorning her head.

Professional football coach Terry reportedly took to the stage at the reception to lead a singalong as the wedding party celebrated the occasion till late at night.

The nuptials come after a source told The Sun earlier this month that the couple are “madly in love” and have “spent months” planning the wedding.

The source said that only “close friends and family” were invited as the couple are “very private” and “don’t feel the need for a flashy, public wedding”.

Cole and Canu are believed to have first met in 2014 when he joined AS Roma in Italy. They have kept their relationship largely private, but announced their engagement after Cole popped the question last year.

In a sweet post on her Instagram, Canu shared a video of her and Cole sharing a kiss after he bent down on one knee to propose to her in front of large bouquets of roses.

She wrote over the clip: “The easiest ‘yes’ I’ve ever said.”

Cole posted the same clip on his own Instagram account and tagged his fiancée, adding a string of red heart emojis.

Prior to his divorce from Cheryl, the football coach faced accusations of cheating on her with at least five women during their marriage. He was first accused of infidelity with a hairdresser in 2008, two years after he and Cheryl tied the knot.

Following the separation, the singer told Piers Morgan on his ITV1 show Life Stories that she could not explain how the relationship fell apart. Cole has never publicly commented on the divorce or the cheating allegations.

Cheryl said: “Looking back on it, I feel numb. We had a great marriage and a fantastic wedding day, but I don’t know where it went wrong. To this day I still question that.”

Since the split, Cheryl has been married to Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini from 2014 to 2016, and shares six-year-old son Bear with Liam Payne.