Details on Taylor Swift’s wedding are starting to emerge after Greg James returned to BBC Radio 1 and shared what he saw in New York.
The radio host attended the ceremony with his wife, author Bella Mackie. He kept the invitation secret for months.
According to reports, the wedding took place on July 3 at Madison Square Gardens. Greg called it an “amazingly strange but exciting dream”.
Why the Taylor Swift wedding stayed secret for so long
Greg told listeners on his radio show on Wednesday: “It was unbelievably fun. I didn’t tell any of my friends, I could [only] tell Bella as she was invited as well. I couldn’t even tell my boss, I just took annual leave.”
Secrecy surrounded the event before the ceremony. Reports suggested 1,000 names were on the guest list.
That list reportedly included stars from music, Hollywood and sport. Greg said the celebrity turnout stunned him.
“Every 10 seconds it was a room full of the most famous people in the world,” he recalled.
Greg James has interviewed Taylor Swift on BBC Radio 1 in the past. During one Radio 1 interview, Swift jokingly referenced inviting him to her wedding, a detail James later said had helped fuel speculation before the ceremony.
James is the host of BBC Radio 1 Breakfast and has been a regular on the station for years. His on-air comments after returning from New York added to a longer public connection between the presenter and Swift through Radio 1 appearances.
He added: “I just couldn’t believe. It was like going to Madame Tussauds but the wax was animated and you could interact with the wax and it talked back to you, it was absolutely mad.”
Taylor told Greg in a Radio 1 interview last year that he would be invited to her wedding.
Some fans doubted he would make it. He had appeared at the Crossed Wires podcast festival in Sheffield the day before.
Greg later confirmed on Instagram that he watched the couple tie the knot.
What Greg James says made the Taylor Swift wedding so surreal
Greg said he could not reveal everything from inside the event. Still, he shared a few standout details from the reception.
He told listeners: “I did speak to Taylor and Travis, but on a wedding, you know the bride and groom are very busy, so imagine that but the bride and groom are Travis and Taylor.”
According to Greg, the couple skipped a formal sit-down dinner. Instead, guests had unlimited food.
“There were multiple cakes,” said Greg.
He also described a lively party mood: “There was an open invitation to get up onto the stage and dance while the DJ was on, so I did.”
Greg James is a British radio and television presenter best known for hosting BBC Radio 1 Breakfast. He took over the breakfast show in 2018 after previously presenting other programmes on the station.
Outside radio, James has appeared on podcasts, live events and television projects. He is married to author Bella Mackie, who was also named by James as attending the wedding.
Greg then joked that the “first 10,000 drinks were free”. He said that led to an “incredible hangover”.
The strangest moments happened away from the dancefloor
Some of the most surreal stories had nothing to do with the music.
Greg said: “At one point it was me, Bella and Hugh Grant and his wife.”
He also admitted he took home “two little doilies” as keepsakes from the day.
Before the trip, Greg and Bella attended a “secret dinner” at Graham Norton’s house. Their spouses met there before the wedding.
Read more: Taylor Swift mercilessly mocked as pictures of wedding bouquet leaked online
Graham was the only other person in the UK who was publicly invited.
Greg shared one last detail when asked about outfits. He said Mackie “took a few dresses”, while he wore the same suit from Long Boi’s funeral.