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Every bride dreams of her wedding day, filled with eager anticipation and excitement. For Gemma Monk, this moment had been nearly two decades in the making, as she prepared to marry Ken, her childhood sweetheart.
On a bright spring day, Gemma stood in her wedding dress, soaking in the serene moment before her walk down the aisle. Little did she know, drama reminiscent of a soap opera was about to unfold, complete with unexpected twists.
In the midst of her joyful occasion, there was no dramatic interruption from the pews with protests of ‘just cause or impediment.’ Instead, the disruption came in a more outrageous form.
The chaos erupted when Gemma’s sister-in-law, embroiled in a long-standing family dispute, hurled a pot of black paint at her, leaving Gemma’s stunning £1,800 gown in shambles. The act not only marred her dress but splattered black paint over her and two bridesmaids, resembling a scene from a mud-wrestling match.
At 35, Gemma could only stand aghast at the unfortunate turn of events, a stark contrast to the blissful day she had envisioned.
That the act of sabotage was intended to wreck the happiest day of Gemma’s life is undisputed. Why it was carried out, however, has been harder to fathom.
As the Daily Mail has discovered, the roots of this family saga run deep. And it’s safe to say that no big family reunions are planned any time soon.
As for the bride, pictures of Gemma – shaking, sobbing and covered in paint in the register office car park – were shared around the world, after her sister-in-law, Antonia Eastwood, 49, narrowly escaped jail when she appeared at Maidstone Crown Court to face charges of criminal damage.
Gemma Monk, 35, on her wedding day after having black paint thrown on her
Gemma Monk is seen moments after her sister in law Antonia Eastwood had covered her wedding dress in black paint
The court heard how mental health worker Gemma, in a case of true British pluck, managed to scrub herself clean and, changing into a borrowed dress swiftly fetched by a church usher, was ready to take her vows two hours later – to cheers from admiring guests.
‘We’d waited so long for that day. Nothing was going to stop me,’ Gemma, a mother-of-two from Herne Bay, Kent, told the Mail.
‘I didn’t think twice. I would have walked down the aisle in my knickers and with black paint over my face if I had to.’
But why on earth did Antonia do it? And, more to the point, is she sorry?
Speaking exclusively to the Mail, hairdresser Antonia – or Toni as she’s known – gave her version of events of that day in May 2024.
And while she’s sorry for the notoriety she’s brought on herself, she has little remorse for what she did to Gemma.
‘I feel ashamed of myself,’ she said. ‘It’s not me. I’ve never been in trouble with the police before. Ever.
‘I had a full-blown panic attack on the day I was sentenced. I was petrified I’d go to prison. It has all taken its toll.’
She claims to be as bemused about her own motives as anyone, saying: ‘I don’t know why I did it.’ It was, she insisted, a ‘spur of the moment thing’.
Gemma’s sister-in-law Antonia Eastwood claims Gemma tried to sabotage HER wedding
Gemma after the wedding, with her £1,800 dress which was ruined in the incident
But we can reveal this is a family riven with divided loyalties and petty rows that escalated, Toni claims, after she beat Gemma down the aisle the previous year and Gemma tried to sabotage HER wedding.
As a result of the bad feeling, neither Toni nor her husband Ashley – one of Gemma’s four brothers – had been invited to Gemma and Ken’s wedding at Oakwood House register office, in Maidstone, but decided to turn up anyway.
Toni wanted to give Gemma ‘a piece of my mind’, she says.
She blamed Gemma for ruining her own wedding the previous year by trying to trip her up as she walked down the aisle, something Gemma has dismissed as nonsense.
And the paint? It was in the car by coincidence, she insists.
‘My daughter Hollie had just given birth to our first grandchild and I’d been using some black paint to do our new granddaughter’s handprints and footprints,’ she said.
‘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.’
After that, all hell broke out. Punches were thrown. Hair was even pulled out in a wedding scene worthy of an episode of EastEnders. Gemma ended up literally smeared in paint.
Antonia, known as Toni, at her wedding to Gemma’s brother Ashley
After the paint was thrown, all hell broke out. Pictured, Gemma with Ken Monk at their wedding after a costume change
‘Later I realised I also had a bald patch where the hair had been ripped out of my head,’ says Toni.
The melee spiralled into farce. Father of the bride Jason, having dropped Gemma off at the door, had been parking his Range Rover when he saw what was going on and raced over – accidentally leaving the car in reverse and sending it crashing into a brick wall.
Then Toni and Ash, 37, fled to Greater Manchester, where Toni’s family live, and where the couple now live.
Needless to say, there were a few angry phone calls that night.
Ash says: ‘My mum rang to say, “What the hell, Ash? You didn’t need to do that!” Other people were threatening us – saying they’d burn our house down.
‘We were warned not to go near anyone or they’d kill us.’
At Maidstone Crown Court last week, Antonia Eastwood was given a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to two offences of criminal damage.
She was also handed a ten-year restraining order and told to pay £5,000 in compensation: £4,000 to Gemma and £1,000 to Oakwood House.
Her claim that the paint-throwing was an impulse act was also discredited.
Judge Oliver Saxby KC clearly disbelieved it, saying she had obviously set out to ‘wreck’ Gemma’s day. He labelled it ‘horrid and nasty and mean’.
Gemma (pictured with Ken after the incident) and her brother Ashley admit there was bad blood between her and Antonia
According to Toni, animosity between the two women started to build as soon as she and Ashley became a couple in 2023.
They’d met in Murcia, Spain, where Ash, a builder, was working on Toni’s uncle’s house, and she had come to visit him.
Both had been in previous relationships, which they say were petering out.
‘Both our relationships were effectively over and we began spending more and more time together. It was true love – we’re real soulmates,’ says Toni. ‘We travelled back to the UK in April 2023 and we were married five months later.’
But not everyone was delighted when they announced their wedding plans.
Ash believes Gemma was riled because she was not yet married: ‘It was all about her and how she’d been with her partner (Ken) for 20 years, yet he’d never asked her to tie the knot.
‘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.’
Gemma hadn’t exactly welcomed his new fiancee to the family, Ash claims. The only girl among five siblings, Gemma likes to ‘take centre stage’ and does not enjoy being usurped, he says.
And when Toni and Ash set a date for their wedding, it seemed to act as a catalyst for her fury.
‘After that, Gemma started coming round and talking about Ash’s past girlfriends,’ says Toni. ‘She’d say: “Aren’t you bothered about all those other girls?”
‘I kept telling her I wasn’t jealous of Ash’s past. I knew what she was doing wasn’t right, but she was part of my soon-to-be husband’s family.’
Gemma’s dress after the wedding. She was able to change into another and still get married
Gemma, too, concedes that there was ‘bad blood’ between them.
‘I didn’t warm to her all that much,’ Gemma has admitted, adding, ‘The first time I met Toni she was telling me how she left her husband and children to be with Ashley, who in turn had left his wife and children too. It was like she was splitting up two families.’
Matters only worsened when both sets of couples went for a night out together in Maidstone, says Ash.
‘We went for something to eat and then back to a hotel where Gemma and Ken had a massive row. She started shouting at Ken about why he hadn’t married her,’ recalls Ash.
In the ‘awkward’ aftermath of the disastrous evening, the group dispersed early – but not before Ash had asked Ken to be best man at his wedding; an offer he accepted.
Then, just four or five weeks before they were to marry, Ken backed out.
‘He messaged me to say he couldn’t do it,’ says Ash. ‘Apparently Gemma wouldn’t let him. She said she didn’t want to sit on her own while he was up at the front.’
Ash’s 16-year-old son stepped into the role.
But Toni and Ash’s wedding didn’t pass without incident. ‘It was a nightmare,’ says Toni. ‘We got married at 4pm and everyone had gone by 8pm.’ There was a massive bust-up between two of the guests: another brother and his girlfriend.
But, according to Toni, the worst moment was when Gemma tried to trip her up as she walked down the aisle.
‘You could see she had her foot in the aisle as Toni walked past. It left us thinking: was she trying to trip her up?’ says Ash.
Gemma denies she did anything of the sort, describing the claims as ‘delusional’.
‘I’m about 5ft tall. My legs aren’t long enough to trip her even if I wanted to,’ she said.
‘I told them they were ridiculous for accusing me. I’ve since looked back at their wedding video and it shows Toni walking past me without any incident at all.’
But Ash and Toni remain convinced Gemma was behind the bad feeling that day.
‘The ceremony went ahead and we were very happy, but as we went into the reception, my brother and his partner were still shouting at each other and it seemed to be because Gemma had been stirring up trouble,’ says Ash.
‘Everyone was distraught because of the arguing and eventually I went outside and told them, “Enough is enough. Don’t let Gemma get to you!” But the day ended abruptly.’
The next day, Ash, still fuming, rang Gemma and told her she had ruined their wedding day.
And Gemma’s take on it all?
‘I’d always been close to Ashley. So all I can think is that Toni was jealous of that. I believe he and Toni were looking for someone to blame for their wedding day going wrong,’ she says.
‘They said nothing to me on the actual day, and to be honest we enjoyed ourselves. We gave them money as a gift and were the first couple to join them on the dance floor.’
Whatever the truth of the matter, neither woman has fared well since.
Gemma, who had a cancer scare before her wedding (fortunately the tumour was benign), says she’s suffered from depression and been unable to work. ‘It has made me question whether I had done something really bad,’ she said.
And although Toni says she is ‘not looking for pity’ and admits she knows she’s done wrong, Ash says she has lost weight and suffered mental health problems and sleeplessness.
‘She regrets what she did and wishes she could turn back time,’ says Ash, adding that they no longer have anything to do with his family.
‘It was a family feud and that’s how it should have stayed.’
There is some good news for Gemma and Ken, however.
‘We’re never going to Kent again,’ says Ash.
Amen to that.