Katherine Ryan has explained her reasoning for entering a civil partnership, saying she “didn’t need to put on a white dress and pretend to be a virgin”.
In 2018, the comedian was reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Bobby Kootstra, while filming BBC genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are? in her native Ontario, Canada.
The couple recently entered into a civil partnership, opting to conduct their ceremony in Denmark because it was “quickest and easiest”.
“It was a lovely day”, Ryan said on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show.
“It’s perfect having a civil partner. We didn’t have a wedding, I didn’t need to put on a white dress and pretend to be a virgin, that ship has sailed!”
Ryan has a 10-year-old daughter, Violet, from a previous relationship.
The comedian told Jonathan Ross that her daughter didn’t want her to enter a relationship “because it had just been the two of us against the world for a really long time”.
“She was not trusting of my decisions,” the 36-year-old said. “She put Chanel glasses on and moped around Tivoli Gardens [an amusement park in Copenhagen, Denmark] but we thought it was funny about an hour after it happened.
“She flipped out, genuinely flipped a table... She is happy now though, it worked out.”
Ryan added that her daughter “really loves” Kootstra, which is “a beautiful thing”.
“It means she trusts me again, I actually made a good decision for once,” she said.
In October 2018, former Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the law would be changed to allow mixed-sex couples in England and Wales to enter civil partnerships.
The government stated that it would address the “imbalance” that permitted same-sex couples to choose between having a civil partnership or getting married, but didn’t give mixed-sex couples the same choice.
Monday 2 December 2019 marked the first day on which mixed-sex couples could register their intent to enter a civil partnership in England and Wales.
In October, it was reported that Ryan and Kootstra fought off a masked robber in their London home, saving the comedian’s Netflix scripts.
