Featured Image Credit: GMB
Topics: Wedding, Sex and Relationships, Crime, UK News
Rhianna Benson
What was supposed to be the happiest day of one bride's life descended into sheer chaos.
Just minutes before Gemma Monk was due to walk down the aisle in May 2024, wearing a glistening white £1,800 wedding gown, she was ambushed with a gallon of what appeared to be jet black paint.
Despite her heartache, Monk went ahead with her nuptials that day at a plush venue in Kent, UK, saying 'I do' to husband Ken in a dress supplied by a guest. The couple also plan to renew their vows next year in a ceremony involving a handful of selected attendees.
Astonishingly, the culprit behind the cruel attack had been her very own sister-in-law, Antonia Eastwood, who'd formed a revenge attack against Monk.
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Appearing on Good Morning Britain earlier this week (29 Apr), however, the newlywed insisted she'd 'never forgive' her brother Ashley's partner.
Recalling the heartache, Monk recalled waiting behind a wall for her wedding planner to call her name.
"I was standing there waiting for my dad, then I hear my name being called," she explained. I thought someone had trodden on my dress or my veil. Then I turned, and I was splashed. I knew instantly who it was.
"Because there’s not many people I don’t get on with. I want what is best for people, I only want what’s best for my brother as well, even today."
"I don’t know why anyone would even think of something so disgusting," Monk claimed. "All the allegations that she has put forward are false. She was found guilty for two accounts of criminal damage on myself and on our venue."
"She has shown no remorse whatsoever; the only time she said sorry was through the barrister, not vocally to me," the bride added.
A court previously heard that Eastwood had hurled the paint to get back at Monk over an incident that occurred during her own wedding in the years prior.
Monk was accused of trying to trip Eastwood up as she walked down the aisle in early 2024 - an allegation that resulted in Eastwood and her husband being uninvited from Monk's nuptials.
Speaking to The Mail last week, ahead of Monk's appearance on the early-morning ITV show, Eastwood admitted she 'doesn't know why' she attacked her sister-in-law, describing the incident as a 'spur of the moment thing'.
"I feel ashamed of myself," she added. "It’s not me. I’ve never been in trouble with the police before. Ever."
Providing further alleged detail on their long-standing feud, Eastwood claimed it stemmed from Monk being jealous of her marrying her brother after a relatively short time, despite her and Ken having been together for 20 years.
Backing up his wife's claims that she was tripped up by his sister at their wedding, Ashley also told the news outlet: "It was a jealousy thing, I think, because she wasn’t getting married, and she just didn’t want me to be with Toni, either."
Asked about the substance she threw over Monk, Eastwood claimed: "It was child-friendly, watered-down black paint in a tub of around 200ml, and it happened to be in the side pocket of the car.
"I saw her [Gemma] get out of her car. She was a few yards away. Then I just shouted to her and threw the paint. It hit the back of her dress."