Weddings have often been known to tear families apart as relationships are tested.
And Adam Peaty and his wife-to-be Holly Ramsay have found themselves in an ugly fallout with the Olympic swimmer’s mother Caroline after it was revealed this week she has been banned from attending the wedding.
It seems there have been signs for months that Adam was growing distant from his roots, in particularly his mother Caroline.
A source close to the Ramsays points to ‘wider problems’ in the Peaty family which they say is at the heart of the fallout – and that they are serious.
The insider explains that there have been ‘horrible’ threats of violence against Holly and Adam and that police are involved. On Wednesday, it was revealed the shaken swimmer was met by uniformed police as he landed back in the UK following his stag do in Budapest, Hungary.
In a telling comment back in 2024, Adam heaped praise on his fiancée Holly and the Ramsays when discussing his sporting success, but failed to mention his own mother.
Adam Peaty made a very telling comment about the Ramsays when he returned to swimming after his breakdown (pictured with fiancée Holly)
In a telling comment back in 2024, Adam heaped praise on his fiancée Holly and the Ramsays when discussing his sporting success, but failed to mention his own mother (pictured with mum Caroline)
He was reflecting on winning a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, having taken a break from competitive swimming while he battled alcoholism and depression.
Adam said of Holly: ‘She’s brilliant. She’s been pinnacle to this moment in my life where I can have peace and I can have that kind of love where it’s not defined by anything else other than the connection we have.’
He added to The Times: ‘It’s great and I look forward to the future’.
His tell-all interview was titled ‘Adam Peaty: how religion and the Ramsays saved me’ – with no mention to his own family.
Adam also gushed over the support from the Ramsay brood – namely Gordon, who he said ‘inspires me to be successful’.
Gushing over the family, he added that they were all ‘incredible people’ who are ‘very supportive, very welcoming and very loving’.
He made no mention of his mother Caroline, who that year spoke of the anguish she felt when she noticed he was struggling with his mental health.
Speaking to the BBC back in 2024, Caroline revealed she had ‘noticed a difference’ during her son’s time off and admitted ‘I want him to finish swimming to have some kind of normality.’
Adam also gushed over the support from the Ramsay brood – namely Gordon, who he said ‘inspires me to be successful’ (Adam pictured with Holly and her parents Tana and Gordon)
After his break from the pool she explained: ‘He was more like our Adam – he was like the son we sort of lost along the journey.’
‘He [used to be] very focused, very insular and not very much for family. Swimming always came first, which it [had] to do.
‘But I know that he’s happy, he’s in the place he wants to be now and he’s more secure. He’s ready as he’ll ever be.
‘Knowing your child is suffering no matter how old they are is difficult. Adam is very happy now – I think he’s a better Adam personally than what he was before, the break has done him good.’
Adam – famously once scared of water – began swimming at his local club in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire but after breaking club records he was soon scouted and invited to City of Derby Swimming Club at age 14 for more intensive training.
The move, while beneficial for Adam’s progress, resulted in a lot more travel, and with his dad unable to drive, it was Caroline who bore the brunt of the training commitments.
‘I’d get up at four in the morning, drive him 40 minutes to Derby, sit and wait two hours while he was training, or go to Tesco, then drive him back again and do a full day’s work as a nursery manager,’ she recalled. ‘Then we’d do it again in the evening.’
‘I’ve always hated driving, my husband doesn’t drive, and I was so tired all the time.
‘But Adam’s willpower was stronger than mine and he’d say, ‘Come on Mum, no staying in bed.”
Money was tight, so their neighbours organised fund-raising barbecues and Christmas parties in the street, to pay for the petrol when he took part in national competitions.
Adam’s parents were also said to have gone into debt as a result of funding his career.
He was reflecting on winning a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, having taken a break from competitive swimming while he battled alcoholism and depression (pictured after the race with Holly)
Eventually, Adam secured National Lottery funding of around £15,000 a year, which has risen to £30,000.
Their holidays also revolved around Adam’s career, with Caroline having never flown abroad until the Rio Olympics because all her annual leave had been used to travel the UK for Adam’s races.
Yet her jaunt to Brazil was certainly one to remember, with Adam walking away with a gold model in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke and silver in the Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay.
As he took to the podium and had his medal draped around his neck, Caroline was seen sobbing with pride, cheering him on alongside her husband Mark.
Adam’s coach, Melanie was quick to praise them at the time, saying: ‘All those journeys to Derby and back, day after day, were a huge stress for the family.
‘They didn’t realise how talented he was – they thought I was some crazy coach telling them to take him swimming at 4am. His family has been a huge part of his success.’
However now the relationship appears to be at breaking point after it emerged on Monday that Adam had banned Caroline from attending the wedding after a row erupted when Holly didn’t invite her future mother-in-law to her hen party.
Adam made no mention of his mother, who that year spoke of the anguish she felt when she noticed he was struggling with his mental health (pictured alongside Adam’s father Mark)
Adam’s family feud was sparked over Holly’s failure to invite her future mother-in-law to her hen party, with guests including mother Tana, sisters Megan and Tilly and Victoria Beckham
An insider close to the Peaty family claimed it seemed like Adam didn’t feel his nursery worker mother and caretaker father are ‘good enough for the new one he is now part of.’
They added: ‘Holly comes from a celebrity world, while his parents do not, and his ego and self-importance have grown. He’s no longer the lovely boy next door we all remember.’
A source told the Daily Mail: ‘Caroline is devastated by the rift and doesn’t know what she has done wrong.
‘Adam’s relationship with his mum and dad Mark are at an all-time low, and now she’s not coming to the wedding,
‘She had been so excited and really wanted to be involved and had offered to make lovely table setting name plates, as she is a skillful craftswoman, but she was told her help wasn’t needed.
‘As time has gone on, things have become strained and there have been rows, the tension has been very fraught. Caroline is in pieces and is absolutely heartbroken that it’s gotten to this point.
‘Caroline and Mark put Adam’s career above everything and supported him through thick and thin so for their relationship to have crumbled is so upsetting.
‘They feel that Adam started to grow distant from his family after he met Holly and they started to become more serious. There is a feeling that money is an issue.
‘His family are working class and proud – it’s a stark contrast to the Ramsay family and some members of the family have said it feels like Adam is ashamed of them.’
