SPANISH tennis star Fernando Verdasco and his girlfriend Ana Boyer – half-sister of Latin pop-rocker Enrique Iglesias – got married yesterday (Friday) in the Caribbean, a day earlier than planned to avoid possible tropical storms forecast for the weekend.
The twice-national champion and former world number seven, 34, and lawyer Ana, 28 married on the paradise island of Mustique in the Antilles, with guests flying in for the day from Miami and the neighbouring Grenadine island of Santa Lucía.
Mustique island is a favourite celebrity getaway and has been the holiday destination of choice for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Mick Jagger, Tommy Hilfiger and Paul Newman, among others – especially as it is completely safe from the paparazzi: as a private island, nobody is allowed to set foot on it without the express permission of The Mustique Company, which owns it.
To this end, the only photographs of the wedding will be official ones, and have not yet been released, although it is likely the couple will sell the exclusive rights to either one or a small handful of celebrity media channels.
Barely 60 guests, nearly all close friends and family members, are said to have been invited to the wedding, and include world number one tennis player Rafa Nadal and fellow Spanish ATP star Marc López, both long-standing friends and colleagues of the groom.
Ana's mother, Spanish-Philippine model, TV presenter and 'it-girl' Isabel Preysler, 66, was the guest of honour along with her fiancé of two years, Peruvian novellist, Nobel Prize-winner and ex-politician Mario Vargas Llosa, 81.
Ana's sister Tamara Falcó and her half-brother Julio José Iglesias, son of legendary crooner Julio Iglesias, both attended, although it is not thought Enrique did, and it seems unlikely Ana's father Miguel Boyer's other children would have been at the wedding, since a long-running family rift means the siblings barely have any contact with each other.
Verdasco's main guests were Rafa and Marc, but other friends from the tennis circuit were said to be unable to get away as they were at the height of their training.
Ana posted a photograph of her wedding dress, still in the shop, on her Instagram account, @anaboyer, but the designer has not been revealed.
However, it is said that her jewellery is from the brand Suárez, and included a white-gold necklace and matching earrings and a diamond bracelet.
Who is the new Mrs Verdasco?
Ana, who is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English, describes herself as 'the family swot' as she has two degrees – in business management and in law – and worked until very recently for the prestigious Madrid-based solicitors' firm Uría & Menéndez, where she did her post-graduate training five years ago.
Earlier, she had spent her summer holidays training at Banco Santander in New York and at Latin America's main investment bank, BTG Pactual, in Brazil.
Her late father, Miguel Boyer, used to be minister for the economy in Spain and, since his death, Ana has been in charge of the family finances.
She has also worked as a model, being the face of Land Rover, Durán jeweller's, Fiesta sweets, Pronovias bridalwear, and Gisele Bündchen flip-flops.
