Anyone who has looked at Holly Ramsay’s Instagram account will know what a life of lavishness and privilege she enjoys.
Barely a day goes by when the influencer daughter of superstar chef Gordon and salon owner Tana Ramsay doesn’t share the latest photos of her oh-so-enviable life.
Whether it’s a glorious sunshine break to Malibu, Miami or Portugal, a VIP trip to Wimbledon, a Cartier-sponsored polo match, or flaunting designer clothes and handbags – some of which she is paid to wear – it’s fair to say that Holly’s world is the antithesis of the one her husband-to-be Adam Peaty grew up in.
The 30-year-old triple Olympic gold swimming champion had a rather more modest upbringing, spent mostly at a leisure centre in Derby accompanied by his devoted mother Caroline as she supported his insatiable bid to become a sporting giant. Caroline was a nursery manager and dad Mark worked in a supermarket.
Holly, 25, grew up in luxurious mansions in south-west London and the chi-chi Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles, while watching her explosive dad coin it in as a foul-mouthed TV legend.
Their two worlds collided when they met on the set of Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 where Adam, then with ex-girlfriend Eirianedd Munro (mother of his son George), appeared as a contestant alongside Holly’s younger sister Tilly, 24.
Alas, attempting to blend two such different families has erupted in warfare, after Holly and Adam reportedly banned his mum Caroline from their forthcoming wedding.
A subsequent briefing battle has ensued which has seen Gordon’s PR machine jump into action – and in the blizzard of accusations and counter-accusations, it’s hard to know where the truth lies.
Holly’s Instagram page regularly shows the life of privilege she enjoys thanks to her parents
Olympic champion Adam reportedly banned his mum Caroline from his forthcoming wedding to Holly
‘It all seems rather unedifying for Team Ramsay to come out and throw around accusations about a normal, ordinary family like the Peatys,’ says a source close to the situation. ‘There are, of course, some comparisons with the whole Beckham and Peltz situation,’ they added, referring to the footballer’s family falling out with eldest son Brookyln and daughter-in-law Nicola Peltz.
‘But they are able to look after themselves – they get the media, the fame game and have the staff in place to deal with these kinds of public feuds.
‘The Peatys don’t. They are a normal hard-working bunch who have suddenly found themselves up against one of Britain’s richest and most influential families.
‘Yes, it is all very sad, and there are two sides to every story. But you have to wonder if it’s a straight up-and-down case of Holly and Adam ditching his family.’
Indeed, so much mud has been thrown at the Peatys in this sorry tale, some have questioned whether the Ramsays are simply a bunch of snobs. Someone who knows the celebrity family even – cruelly – described the Peatys as ‘a bit rough’. However, a source close to the Ramsays points to serious ‘wider problems’ in the Peaty family which they say is at the heart of the fallout.
The insider explains that there have even been ‘horrible’ threats of violence against Holly and Adam, and police are involved.
Meanwhile, yesterday, Adam’s aunt, Louise Williams, took aim at her in-laws, writing on social media: ‘The difference between me and a lot of people is that I’m not afraid to be disliked. I don’t give a f*** who you are supposed to be, think you are or who are you are connected to.’
One associate of the Ramsays says: ‘Gordon plays a good game of this, coming from nothing in Johnstone [Scotland]. He also says that he makes his kids sit in economy while he’s in first class and that they won’t inherit his money but his behaviour.
Some have questioned whether the Ramsays are simply a bunch of snobs, writes Katie Hind. Adam pictured with Holly and his future in-laws
Caroline was reportedly hurt after not being invited to Holly’s hen do – although Holly’s good friend Victoria Beckham made the guest list
‘Tana still works in her salon round the corner from where she lives, and so many people describe her as being very nice despite her riches.
‘But the way that the Ramsays are behaving stinks of them being a bunch of snobs. Surely when your child gets together with someone from a more humble background, you embrace them. This has been the opposite.’
It first emerged on Monday that Adam had reportedly banned his own mother from attending his wedding after a row is said to have erupted when bride-to-be Holly didn’t invite Caroline to her hen party at swanky Soho Farmhouse in the Cotswolds, despite her own mum and Tana’s best friend Victoria Beckham attending.
The pair’s forthcoming nuptials are to take place at Bath Abbey, Somerset, before Christmas. After which the guests – who include famous names such as the Beckhams – will head to the opulent country estate Kin House, in Chippenham.
Friends of the Peatys have told the Daily Mail that the wider family are on Universal Credit and can’t afford to attend such a lavish affair.
But, sadly for all involved, the rift has gone way beyond the wedding – and Adam’s once beloved aunts Janet and Louise have now both taken to social media to stand up for Caroline.
Janet claims that Holly and Adam banned Caroline from the wedding after she didn’t apologise for cancelling a trip to Bath – after train services had been changed following the recent knife attack atrocity near Huntingdon. The trip was for Caroline to pick out a dress after Holly reportedly did not like her future mother-in-law’s first choice and offered to buy her another one.
Sources close to the Ramsays, meanwhile, tell me that they ‘had never heard of any stories’ of issues between the two families in the past. But the Peatys say that Adam has ‘had his head turned’ by the Ramsays, with Holly getting a lot of the blame.
It all, says one friend, ‘smacks of the way Nicola Peltz has been accused of being the reason for Brooklyn Beckham cutting his parents off’.
In contrast, Holly’s brother Jack decided to shun the showbusiness game and instead took himself off to the Royal Marines after studying at Exeter University. Tilly, the Ramsays’ youngest daughter, has opted for the limelight but is said to be a ‘grafter’, having carved out her own career after landing CBeebies show Matilda And The Ramsay Bunch when she was a teenager.
It all started so well between Holly and her mother-in-law-to-be, says friends.
Last summer they cheered on Adam together as he won his sixth Olympic medal at the La Defense Arena in Paris. And when Holly celebrated her birthday last December, Caroline wrote on Instagram: ‘We are looking forward to the year ahead and to you officially becoming part of our family.’
Only now, as things stand, there is no chance of any reconciliation. And when Adam watches Holly walk down the aisle on the arm of her father, he will do so without either of his parents – or indeed the wider family – being there.
