Wedded bliss?

Your marriage or civil partnership should be recognised in the UK if you follow the correct process according to local law - you won’t need to register it in the UK  is what it says on the UK Government website, so when my now ex husband came to the UK and said we should get married in the UK I refused as we were married, or were we?

I did consult briefly two lawyers re my marriage, one said they thought it legal the other said it was not, emotionally I worked on the basis that is was, but asked my then husband to the UK to meet friends and family before arranging for him to come over permanently to the UK.  He came we were a disaster together, and so parted, but one of the reasons we were a disaster together is things like him insisting we marry.  Now I realise I have discovered that he might have been right....

Listening to Sunday today there was an item about an Islamic marriage that was made void as it had never been followed by a UK civic marriage ceremony - it caught my attention and I have been doing some delving again and the picture still is not fully clear.  However, had I had a civil marriage it would have protected me legally - whether it would make a difference to my ex husband would be less clear, if we were already legally married, no if not yes. Is this why he wanted to get married? 

Luckily, he tells me we are now divorced and he is married again and settled. I do need at some point to probably follow up on this but this has really unsettled me.   I told him in good faith that we did not need another marriage for our marriage to be accepted in the UK, but I can see the situation was greyer than that and I should have been open to more discussion on the topic. I suppose I was suspicious as to why he wanted it because I could not understand it, and suspicion is not a good basis for a relationship!  

I am also suspicious that the only person who I am talking to about this is myself as I have just confirmed to myself my checking my blog is being recorded as a reader!!!! So all these years wondering who on earth is reading this, well now I know - me!!!!