Rugby league player Joe Westerman has married Alison, the woman he was filmed performing a lewd sex act with behind a Greggs in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, three years after the pair struck up a romance. The 36-year-old former England loose forward shared loved-up photos from the ceremony on social media.
Wedding in Scarborough
The couple tied the knot on Monday, October 26, after being engaged for around two years. Westerman wore a beige suit for the ceremony in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, while Alison wore an A-line dress with a short trail. The dad-of-three wrote on social media: "A day we will never forget. Thank you to everyone who made it so special. Here's to our forever. The Westermans."
The couple have since shared videos of their celebrations and appear to have headed off on honeymoon with their children. One guest wrote: "I'm crying again. The most perfect day for the most perfect couple."
Scandal and aftermath
The wedding comes weeks after it emerged that Westerman's ex-wife Lauren, 38, had married her new partner Karl Holmes, also 38. Lauren, a schoolteacher and mother of Westerman's three children, was forced to publicly deny she was the woman in the graphic seven-second clip that ended their nine-year marriage in 2023.
The clip, filmed by a passerby in a dark alley and uploaded to Twitter, showed Westerman performing a sex act. The childhood sweethearts married in 2014, but Lauren ended the marriage when the video went viral. The scandal followed an extraordinary 15-hour booze binge the weekend before the start of the Super League season.
Impact on family
Lauren said at the time that she had been bombarded with apologetic messages from Westerman but vowed she would never take him back. She told a newspaper the clip had caused "untold harm" to their two eldest children as it was shared at school, adding: "I've relived that footage over and over again. It's something I'll never be able to get out of my mind no matter how hard I try."
Westerman was taunted by fans for months after the scandal and issued a public apology, admitting he had made a "massive mistake". He burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old at his hometown club Castleford Tigers and was voted Super League's Young Player of the Year in 2008.
The back rower played more than 460 games in rugby league's top flight during a career that included spells at Warrington, Toronto, Wakefield and two stints at Hull FC. He was capped by England during the 2014 Four Nations. Released by Castleford at the end of last season, he announced his intention to retire from the sport to join his father at the family's Pontefract-based construction firm.
