They had been dating two weeks.

Ben Foden has confirmed that he has married his girlfriend, Jackie, in a secret ceremony over the weekend. He shared a series of photos from their celebrations on Instagram, as he paid tribute to his wife - who he called the "greatest human being I’ve ever come across". He wrote:

"This last year has been by far my toughest and most turbulent for a number of reasons that many of you I’m sure are aware of, in some way or another. "The world has a funny way of working things out, many people think I’m a bad person - as I’m sure they’ll be many nasty comments left under this post by keyboard warriors a plenty. "But I met a girl who seriously swept me off my feet and in a time of hardship showed me love, a deep devoted love. "People will say we are mad or crazy or even fools, as @snackyjax and I had only been dating seriously for a little over 2 weeks before deciding to get married. "But when someone like her comes in to your life, why would I wait?"

He added that the people "who needed to know", like close family and friends, were told about the wedding before anybody else - including his ex wife, Una Healy, who he said had given her blessing to the couple. He continued:

"Life is short and you only get one and it’s worth living. Jackie is the greatest human being I’ve ever come across - she’s beautiful inside and out, intelligent, charming, funny, generous, kind, gentle, energetic the list goes on. "She will be a great step mum to Aoife and Tadhg and offers me a future I can’t wait to explore with her. My heart is full and I honestly couldn’t be happier, so those that want to bring negativity or try and tear me down go ahead. "My life is great and I hope you all will one day feel happiness like I feel while I write this caption. "I love you @snackyjax I can’t wait to see where our lives lead together you brought excitement and joy to my life and I couldn’t be prouder having stand at my side as Mrs Foden."