Celebrity wedding registrar who has married more than 20,000 couples finally finds love

TV registrar Cynthia Green is best-known for marrying new couples on the reality dating shows and .

Standing beside them at one of the most important moments in their lives, she has witnessed their dreams and shared their hopes that their love would last forever.

But while the 60-year-old registrar has always relished every single second of her job, she admits that it couldn’t help but remind her of the one wedding she wanted to attend more than any other, but hadn’t yet been invited to – her own.

A mum to two children and grandmother of three, the bubbly registrar had been in one-long term relationship which hadn’t led to marriage. And by her mid-50s she was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen.

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She says: “There were times when I’d think: ‘forget it. I’ll just have holidays with my friends, enjoy my job and enjoy my grandkids.’ I put it to one side in my mind and convinced myself that I was fine; I didn’t need or want to be married.

“But trying not to think about it wasn’t always easy when I was marrying people every day. And seeing all those couples in love and gazing into each other’s eyes as they exchanged their vows, I did wonder when it was going to be my turn,” Cynthia admits.

“I was looking at them close up on the happiest day of their lives and yes, from time to time I’d feel sad. I’d think: ‘So when am I going to meet my person and get married? When was it going to be my turn?”

To Cynthia’s amazement everything changed two years ago when, out of the blue, she met maintenance worker Milo James at a party. And now, after a whirlwind romance, she is finally planning the wedding of her dreams in Japan next year.

“I’m a true romantic and deep down I always thought it would come to me one day. I just needed to meet the right person and now I have,” Cynthia beams.

“Now, since I got engaged myself, whenever I conduct a wedding, I’m smiling inside and thinking: ‘Yay! I’m with you!’”

Cynthia, who has helped more than 20,000 couples tie the knot, met 46-year-old Milo in Feb 2022. She recalls: “We started talking and realised that we both worked for Islington Council, but we’d never come across each other at all.

“I knew there was something about him that I liked. I did question the 14-year age gap, but it wasn’t an issue for him and since then it never has been a problem for either of us.”

The couple moved in nine months later and after ten months Milo proposed. “I jumped into his arms and just thought: ‘Oh my gosh, I’m actually going to get married Mum and Dad,’ Cynthia says. “They’d already passed away and it was the one thing they would have loved.

“I was so happy. For me getting married is the full commitment and saying those vows to each other is a big deal. For the first few days, I was in shock and then afterwards it was a case of getting my head around the fact that I would actually be arranging my own wedding for a change, not someone else’s.”

Cynthia, who grew up in Lancashire, had previously been in a 17-year relationship with the father of her two children, Aaron, 38 and Alacia, 30, but they never tied the knot.

“We were engaged briefly, but nothing ever came of it,” she reflects. “I did mention it one day and he said: ‘Yeah, yeah, it’ll happen, don’t rush me.’ But it never did. We later split up and that was it.”

Aged 36 and newly single, Cynthia moved to London to be closer to her twin sister Paula, and as a working single mum, she devoted her time to looking after her children.

“I had a couple of relationships, but they weren’t right,” she recalls. “When you’re older you know what you want. My tolerance level wasn’t great and none of them were marriage material.

“Now I’m so pleased that I waited because I’m getting married to the right man. I’ve always thought that marriage is important. I’ve always taken my job seriously and the vows that people repeat after me are significant – it’s a public declaration of love in front of your friends and family.”

Cynthia is best known for her stint on this summer’s hit TV series Love is Blind, which saw 15 men and 15 women date each other for ten days, by talking through a screen. Only if they decided to marry did they actually meet face to face.

“I loved the concept and the fact that you had to connect on an emotional level,” Cythia says. “I married Nicole and Benaiah and I’m so happy that they’re still together.”

Cynthia previously spent five years on the controversial show Married at First Sight UK – where singletons were matched by science and didn’t actually meet each other until their big day.

The series was panned for making a mockery of marriage, but Cynthia says she wouldn’t have taken part if she felt that. She explains: “I initially thought: ‘what? No! I can’t do this.’

“But when I thought about it, I related it to an arranged marriage. I’ve married lots of people who’ve had arranged marriages, where they’ve never met and their parents have got them together.

“For me what was most important was that the production company took it seriously. The weddings were legal and real and I asked that once the ceremony started it went the whole way through. They couldn’t shout ‘cut’ and stop it and start again.”

During her 27 years as a registrar Cynthia has married several big-name stars, including The Crown actress Claire Foy.

She was also the registrar for the second marriage of ’s dad Ted in 2021. “I didn’t know it was going to be him, I just went along to the venue in the city of London and Victoria walked in and I went: ‘ooh!’” Cynthia giggles.

“David was his best man and he was so lovely. He came up and hugged me afterwards and said: ‘thank you so much.’

“I also registered the birth of Jude Law’s son and Jodie Whittaker’s baby. Another time I did a wedding and Simon Callow was one of the guests. He came up to me out of the blue afterwards and said: ‘have you ever thought of being an actress?’ I said no and he said: ‘well I think you should.’

“I didn’t go to the reception and a couple of weeks later the couple sent me a thank-you card and said: ‘oh Cynthia, we made a mistake, Simon Callow was at the reception waiting to speak to you.’ I couldn’t believe it!”

Cynthia’s TV career began in 2010 when her lively and fun personality saw her chosen to work on the Channel 4 series The Wedding House, where she married 46 couples over 26 days, in a series of themed weddings, including a masked ball which saw her conducting the ceremony while wearing a mask.

“Another was 101 Dalmatians. There weren’t 101 in the room, but there was about 30!” she laughs. “The most incredible was a Superheroes-themed ceremony, where the bride dressed as Storm from X Men, the groom dressed as The Riddler from Batman, I wore a gold gown and the 120 guests all dressed as either a villain or a hero.”

As well as marrying couples, Cynthia is also a celebrant and conducts naming and welcoming ceremonies, vow renewals and commitment ceremonies.

The highlight of her career however was conducted the marriage ceremony of her twin sister Paula 11 years ago. “That was amazing and I bawled my eyes out,” she smiles. “Out of 20,000 weddings it was my favourite above everything else – until my own of course!”

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