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Prince Harry and Boris Johnson are among guests pencilled in for the UK-leg of the $600m wedding for the son of Asia’s richest man.
A host of A-list celebrities and politicians descended Mumbai last weekend, as the Ambani-Merchant wedding celebrations reached their crescendo with three days of lavish revelry.
From Kim Kardashian to Tony Blair, the great and the good from the world of showbiz and politics were drawn to the extravagant event, which will now turn its attention to the UK.
The happy couple tied the knot over the weekend of July 12, 13 and 14 but are expected to continue for months to come – with the celebrations resuming at the historic Stoke Park Country Club near Slough, The Sun reported.
The seven-star hotel was bought by the Ambani family in 2021 for £57m and is set to be a grand continuation of their nuptials.
The site has been featured on the silver screen, most famously in Bridget Jones’ Diary when Hugh Grant’s character falls into the water while boating, as well as in Daniel Craig thriller Layer Cake.
Some guests who attended the Mumbai wedding such Boris and Carrie Johnson, who were reportedly paid to attend, may make a second appearance at the hotel.
They could be joined by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who are rumoured to be amongst the UK guest list.
Around 850 members of the Grade II listed golf club have been warned to steer clear as the family have block-booked the hotel until September for the event for renovations.
However, the Ambanis have since reportedly clashed with the local council as questions have been raised as to whether the family is upholding the terms of the estate’s leasehold, the Financial Times reported.
The leasehold is clear the site must be used as a commercial property rather than a private one, making the move to close the hotel to the public while remain open to the family a contentious one.
While likely to be one of the biggest wedding celebrations Britain has seen, it would be a surprise if it upstaged the Mumbai ceremony.
The pair, Anat Ambani and Radhika Merchant, are estimated to have spent $600m on the events, which will last for another two months.
Since their engagement in December 2023, speculation has swirled around the scale of the couple’s wedding.
Amabi is the son of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, while Radhika Merchant is the heiress to a pharmaceutical dynasty. With no shortage of money, the couple built up to their official celebrations with increasingly lavish events.
Their pre-wedding party consisted of a three-day celebration with a 1,200 person guest list including former world leaders, tech tycoons and a performance by Rihanna. Later, they embarked on European cruise with performances by Backstreet Boys and Katy Perry.
The celebrations amalgamated to last weekend’s events, which saw the likes of Justin Bieber taking to the stage to perform at their traditional Sangeet night in Mumbai.
The couple married in a traditional Hindu ceremony on the Friday. This was followed by a ‘shubh ashirwad’ on Saturday — a ceremony held for the couple to receive blessings from guests and elders, culminating in a ‘mangal utsav’, the reception.
The weekend boasted a list of high-profile guests such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, John Cena and Tony Blair, who walked the red-carpet into the 16,000 capacity wedding venue.
Police closed road the Jio World Convention Centre as the streamed past photographers in traditional dress, with stunning custom sarees, lehengas and kurtas all on show.
The Ambanis hired 100 private jets to fly guests in from around the world while every five-star hotel in the area was booked up.
Kim and Khloe Kardashian skipped the red carpet but documented their attendance to their millions of followers on social media.
The sisters wore two showstopping outfits as they attended both the Friday and Saturday’s programme of events. On Friday, Kim wore a red lehenga while Khloe opted for a white and gold ensemble. On Saturday, Kim worse more neutral colours as Khloe went all out with a bright pink lehenga.
Kim’s red ensemble raised some eyebrows as traditionally, guests do not typically wear red to an Indian wedding.
Despite the extravagant efforts of guests, the couple remained very much the star of the wedding weekend which is rumoured to have cost $132m alone.
The groom arrived first on the red carpet in a golden sherwani paired with trainers, which he later changed for the ceremony.
Then the bride appeared in a dazzling hand embroidered red and white ensemble, featuring a 16-foot long veil finished with stones and sequins. She told Vogue that she finished her wedding outfit with the same family jewels worn by her sister and aunts at their own wedding.
Inside the venue, guests walked into a miniature version of the holy Indian city of Varanasi, with huge sculptures and flower displays of animals placed around the venue.
The bride made her entrance on an electric wooden boat before the couple exchanged their cows under a large alter with white domes.
Guests could then move on to enjoy the opulent decor and even make a trip to a lassi and antique shop situated within the venue.
Later in the evening footage shared on social media showed spectacular performances from Indian singer Daler Mehndi and Afrobeats artist Rema.
The guests also enjoyed the baraat, a lively wedding procession for the groom featuring live music and dancing. Videos of Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh dancing to popular Bollywood songs quickly went viral on social media.
The father of the room, Mukesh Ambani, 66, is currently the world’s 9th richest man with a net worth of $116b, according to Forbes. He is also the richest person in Asia.
The family patriarch has started passing the torch to his two sons and daughter. The oldest son, Akash Ambani, is now chairperson of Reliance Jio, their telecoms business; his daughter, Isha, oversees retail, while the groom Anant, the youngest, has been inducted into the new energy business.
Anant, 29, has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, according to Reliance Industries’ website, and oversees the conglomerate’s renewable and green energy expansion.
The bride, Radhika Merchant, also 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoon Viren Merchant and is the marketing director for his company, Encore Healthcare, according to Vogue.
She told the magazine that the two were introduced through mutual friends in 2017. “That first meeting just sparked something special between us, and it wasn’t long before we started dating,” she said.
