Former NI Secretary Peter Mandelson marries long-term partner at 70

Lord Peter Mandelson said he was “delighted” to tie the knot with Reinaldo after 27 years together.

He said that for much of his life, he did not believe it would be possible to marry, with gay marriage only introduced in England and Wales in 2014.

Lord Mandelson, who served as Secretary of State between 1999 and 2001, wrote about his nuptials in The Times.

He describes the difficulty of how, as a gay man, he previously tried to keep his personal life out of the spotlight.

“My choice, as someone who was gay and with a high profile, was not to make my personal life and sexuality a secret, but to try to keep it private rather than in the public eye,” he writes in The Times.

“It was a path that felt necessary at the time, but it caused endless problems and real distress.”

He said times have changed, and “it feels great to make such a public declaration as marriage in 2023”.

He recalled how Matthew Parris, the former Conservative MP and broadcaster, publicly stated he was among gay members of Tony Blair’s Cabinet on Newsnight in November 1998, describing how he felt “both indifferent and angry”.

It was at this time he said his life "had just taken a remarkable turn for the better with Reinaldo entering it”, and they were openly living together in Notting Hill in London.

Lord Mandelson described how Reinaldo’s family and their neighbours were tracked down in Brazil and offered money to tell their story to the press.

He said “leaving this hostile environment behind” was the “real reason” he was determined to go to Brussels to become EU trade commissioner, although, after a series of controversies, he had not been offered a Cabinet post after the 2001 election.

Lord Mandelson had previously twice resigned as a Cabinet minister, including after a row concerning a passport application from an Indian billionaire.

He always denied any wrong-doing and was exonerated after an independent inquiry. He later served as Business Secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, and now sits in the House of Lords.

In The Times, he said: “Trying to retain our privacy has been a failure. So I am delighted to make it a glorious failure, by declaring our love publicly through marriage.

“There is nothing to hide so why create the impression there is? Reinaldo, meanwhile, is going to keep his own counsel and I don’t blame him.

“But, for me, it is easier now to be gay and high profile and marriage has put a welcome seal on my happiness and on the past.”