Reverend Richard Coles has opened up about the "revenge" he took on his late partner because he was once "spectacularly late" to an appointment to discuss their final resting place.
In a 2021 episode of the Full Disclosure podcast with James O’Brien, Reverend Coles discussed his plans for his future grave, which he revealed would be "side-by-side" with his late husband, Reverend David Coles.
David, who previously bought the couple's graves without Richard's "knowledge or consent", tragically died of liver disease in 2019, aged 43, due to a long-standing alcohol addiction that he'd suffered from since he was a teenager, reports the Mirror.
During their discussion, James referred to Reverend Coles' book, 'The Madness of Grief', and how the I'm A Celeb star's partner had ended up in a "rather insalubrious corner of the graveyard".
Reverend Coles said: "Oh, well, you see; the first shall be last and the last shall be...It was a bit of my revenge on him because he bought the graves and then we had to go pick the exact spot, which is actually the churchyard of the village where I have a little cottage which I've had for years, which I love.
"And he was, as usual, late, spectacularly late, so late that the people who we met had gone by the time he arrived. So I got to pick them. And, just to annoy him for being late, I picked the swampiest, darkest, most cobwebby corner of the churchyard."
The couple began their relationship in 2007, with the pair uniting via a civil partnership three years later and David taking Richard's surname. Richard told the church it was a celibate partnership, but he previously admitted this was a lie so he could keep his job.
In a previous interview with The Times, he said: "I felt sometimes like I was in the resistance and they were the Gestapo." He went on to say that he wasn't the first person to "find themselves obliged to lie for institutional reasons in the Church of England".
Richard is now in a relationship with Dickie Cant, an actor who has starred in shows like Midsomer Murders and It's A Sin. He is also the son of the late Play Away presenter Brian Cant.
Reverend Coles has previously spoken about his late husband's death to the Sunday Times, saying he felt "angry" when people "speak in a way that means they think you should be over it".
He also stressed that it's "not a cold" and revealed that the loss "messed his f***ing life up".
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English (US) ·