EastEnders star and Instagram personality Melissa Suffield has eloped to Vegas with her partner Robert Brendan.
The actress, who played Lucy Beale in the hit soap, revealed she had tied the knot with just their son River in attendance at the iconic Little White Wedding Chapel.
Taking to social media, she revealed that after becoming engaged in 2019 and seeing their first wedding plans thwarted by covid, they had wed in an impromtu ceremony.
She looked stunning in a chic white mini while Robert looked slick in all black and River was clad in an adorable tuxedo to watch his parents marry.
Melissa added a caption reading: ‘When in Vegas… 6 years after our cancelled Covid wedding we thought we should probably get round to making it official…
‘And yes, in the most ‘us’ silly and easy going way as possible. Can’t wait to catch you up on the rest of our trip but now, we’re catching a flight to California! SEE YA’.
Their adorable video collage announcing the wedding featured Barbie and Ken recreations of the pair alongside a lookalike doll of River.
The dolls replicated the couple’s video in which they sat in the chapel’s iconic pink convertable. The venue is known for many quick celebrity weddings; famously offering a “Drive-Thru Tunnel of Vows” for quick, largely unplanned marriages.
Stars including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Michael Jordan, Dame Joan Collins, Britney Spears, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have wed in the chapel.
Melissa revealed in 2020 that after her first wedding was cancelled she planned on keeping things low-key when she eventually walked down the aisle.
She said: ‘God knows when this will happen. We had a party booked, because I’m not massively traditional. It’s definitely not going to be a big church wedding with 200 people there, it’s just not my style at all…
‘Obviously the party we had booked is not going to happen. When it does go ahead, River will be up there front and centre with us during the service. I like to think of it as creating a family, rather than the joining of two people.’
Melissa has established herself as ‘The Confident Mama’ on Instagram, after becoming an advocate for body confidence and motherhood.
Her Instagram career comes after she was dismissed from the BBC soap in her role as Lucy for ‘unruly behaviour’. in 2007. She played the character from 2004 to 2010.
Following the dismissal, she spoke out against the decision, saying: ‘It’s not like I was going out, punching photographers and being sick in a gutter…
‘I’m only doing what every other girl of 17 does. It’s not an excuse, but out of all the things Lucy has done, the only one I’ve done is drink underage’.
In recent months, Melissa revealed how a two year mystery illness resulted in dramatic weight loss ‘against her will’ and a battle with ‘anxiety and loneliness’.
In December, she took to Instagram to mark two years since her symptoms began and said she’d spent £20K on medical bills which resulted in a diagnosis of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO).
Melissa has previously shared candid insight into her health woes with fans as well as displaying her three stone weight loss in social media snaps.
SIBO is a condition where too many bacteria normally found in the large intestine grow and flourish in the small intestine, fermenting food and causing symptoms like bloating abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
Taking to Instagram at the time, she penned: ‘Today is a tough day, this day 2 years ago, me and River for sick with whatever infection that gave me SIBO.
‘From the next day onward, I was symptomatic, and I have been basically unwell ever since. I replay that day in my head to often. what if we hadn’t one on the train that day. what if we hadn’t eaten out what if we had stayed at home’.