Adam Peaty’s dad failed to show up to his son’s stag do while future father-in-law Gordon Ramsay took centre stage – as it emerges that almost the entire Peaty clan plans to boycott the Olympic swimmer’s lavish Christmas wedding.
The 30-year-old champion is due to marry influencer fiancée Holly Ramsay, 25, at Bath Abbey on December 27, with star guests including David and Victoria Beckham. But behind the picture-perfect plans, a brutal family rift has left his mother banned, his father absent from the stag weekend and siblings and cousins vowing to stay away from the big day.
Daily Mail sources say Adam’s dad Mark did not join his son on the stag trip after a bitter fallout that began when Adam banned his mum, Caroline, from both the hen do and the wedding. With Mark missing in action, it was Gordon Ramsay who stepped up on the stag, taking centre stage on the trip as the only “father figure” by Adam’s side.
Insiders claim the atmosphere turned so toxic that there were “horrible” threats of violence against both Holly and Adam. The Olympic swimmer was reportedly met off his flight home by armed officers, with five uniformed police escorting him through Manchester Airport amid fears he could be attacked.
Police later confirmed that Adam’s brother, 34-year-old James Peaty, had been arrested on suspicion of harassment after allegedly sending a barrage of abusive and threatening messages to the star during the stag weekend in Budapest. He was questioned for two days before being released on conditional bail while enquiries continue.
Back home, the Ramsay PR machine has been accused of going into overdrive. A source close to the Ramsays insists there are “wider problems” within the Peaty family which are at the root of the fall-out, claiming those issues are “serious” and that the threats against Adam and Holly have forced police to step in.
But Adam’s relatives insist they are being sneered at and frozen out because they are not glossy enough to fit in. The Peatys have taken to social media to suggest they have been brushed aside because they are, in their own words, “simple people on benefits” who don’t match the Ramsays’ “polished” image.
One insider alleged that a “source” from Team Ramsay questioned whether Adam’s mum Caroline “suited the look Holly is looking for”, and suggested she might “stick out a bit” next to the glamorous Ramsay circle. The idea that Caroline wasn’t invited because of how she looks has sparked fury, with Adam’s aunt Louise Williams accusing them of “body-shaming a 60-year-old woman” and exclaiming: “JESUS CHRIST ON A CRACKER!”
Adam’s aunt and other relatives say the family had originally been invited to Boxing Day drinks at the Ramsay home and to stay at a luxury country hotel where the reception will be held – but that no financial help was offered despite some relatives “struggling to get by on universal credit”. The venue’s prices and travel costs from the East Midlands to Bath left some family members feeling they were being priced out of the celebrations.
The fall-out exploded into the open after Caroline was left off the guest list for Holly’s hen do at celebrity hotspot Soho Farmhouse. While Holly posed with her mum Tana, Victoria Beckham, Adam’s sister Bethany and other glamorous guests, Adam’s mother remained at home in Uttoxeter looking after her five-year-old grandson George, the swimmer’s son with ex-girlfriend Eirianedd Munro.
Caroline later posted a cryptic message online reading: “When you love someone, you protect them from the pain, you don’t become the cause of it,” adding the caption: “The ones I love are the people who hurt me the most.”
Her sister Louise went further, publicly calling Holly “divisive and hurtful” towards a woman who “opened her home and heart” to her, and claiming: “Holly and Adam have broken my darling sister.” She says Adam is now “ashamed” of his brothers and embarrassed by their mental health problems, even though he “made money off his brothers’ problems in his book”.
Louise insists Caroline has “a heart bigger than China” and asks: “What good mother ever turns their back on their flesh and blood?” In her view, Caroline’s refusal to abandon her other sons, who she says live with ADHD and mental health issues, has put her on a collision course with the Ramsays and left her frozen out of the wedding.
In the wake of Louise’s posts, relatives claim Adam hit back privately, banning his mother from the wedding altogether and telling her she would not see George – or any future grandchildren – again. One family insider says the swimmer has indicated he plans to distance himself from his family despite all they sacrificed for his career.
Caroline, who once got up at 4am to drive her son around the country for swim training and competitions, is said to be devastated. On Instagram she shared another message that read: “Crying is a way your eyes speak when your mouth can’t explain how broken your heart is.”
Members of the Peaty family have also accused Adam of becoming a “narcissist” who has “forgotten where he came from”, claiming he is now more at home in the celebrity world of the Ramsays and the Beckhams than in the modest East Midlands life he grew up in. One relative branded the whole saga “a s**t show” and said the power of the “rich and famous” has driven a wedge through what was once a close-knit family.
Supporters of Adam and Holly, meanwhile, complain the Peatys are “dragging their dirty laundry into the public” and say the endless online rows only prove why some relatives are no longer welcome at the wedding.
For now, it appears that of all Adam’s relatives, only his sister Bethany may be present when he walks down the aisle in Bath Abbey. As one family source put it: “It should be a happy family occasion, for both families to celebrate together and get to know one another. Instead, it looks like Adam will be marrying into one family, while turning his back on the other.”
