LOS ANGELES – Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren, 65, who has been battling cancer for the past eight years, has married his Norwegian personal trainer Emma Krokdal, 27.

They had an intimate wedding in Mykonos, Greece, on July 13.

They shared the news in an exclusive interview with People magazine on Wednesday, saying in a statement: “We chose to celebrate our love by getting married at our villa in Mykonos with family and a few close friends.

“With both Covid-19 and a long road of challenging medical treatments, we’ve had to push our marriage plans many times.”

They added: “We felt it was finally the right time to celebrate love, life and happiness – in the land of the Gods.”

Lundgren, the action star of Hollywood movies such as Rocky IV (1985), The Expendables franchise (2010, 2012 and 2014) and Creed II (2018), popped the question in June 2020 after dating Ms Krokdal for about a year.

This is his second marriage.

He was married to Swedish interior designer Anette Qviberg from 1994 to 2011 and they have two daughters, Ida, 27, and Greta, 21.

Lundgren spoke about his battle with cancer in May and said that Ms Krokdal had been by his side.

He said doctors first discovered a cancerous tumour in his kidney in 2015. More tumours, including one in his liver, were found in 2020 and he was given two to three years to live.

He sought a second opinion and started a different course of treatment, which he said shrank the tumours by 90 per cent.

He posted a photo on Instagram a day before the wedding of him and his now-wife embracing in a pool in Mykonos and wrote: “Tomorrow is the day.”

While his 3.1 million followers mostly wished him well, there were other netizens who touched on their 38-year age difference and posted mean comments such as “Nice picture of you and your granddaughter”.