Model great-granddaughter of Earl Mountbatten is to marry Canadian welder she met on an eight-hour flight

Earl Mountbatten’s model great-granddaughter plans to marry a Canadian welder she met on an eight-hour flight after separating from her DJ husband.

Maddison May Brudenell, 29, who is also the granddaughter of Lady Pamela Hicks, is engaged to Bret Kapetanov and he has moved to the UK.

Society was transfixed when Maddison secretly ran off to marry DJ Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo in 2015. However, the couple have since divorced.

Maddison said, “I’m engaged to my love and he makes me so happy,” while confirming that Kapetanov has “moved to the UK and put a ring on it.” The pair met on an eight-hour flight.

“Bret is a really nice guy and takes good care of her,” one of her friends said, adding, “She and Ola grew apart for a while and now support each other as co-parents.”

Maddison, the daughter of actor Jeremy Brudenell and Edwina Hicks, has three children aged seven, five and two with Modupe-Ojo, 31, whose stage name is Jazz Purple. She married the DJ in 2015, whose parents are from Nigeria.

Her great-grandfather was King Charles’s beloved great-uncle, the first Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

She explained that she bonded through music with Modupe-Ojo, who grew up in Manchester.

“I fell in love with his work and I went to concerts, but we didn’t get together until a year later,” she said.

“We eloped and eloped at a little family wedding. Our children are blessed with the most beautiful double heritage.’

She had followed in her mother’s footsteps in the fashion world when she was signed as a model by the Storm agency at the age of 16. She has worked for Ralph Lauren and Belstaff, among others.

She is now an advocate for “welfare” and says joining the business so young has affected her mental health.

“I was depressed, anxious, felt pressure in the industry to keep my weight down, to party,” she said. “I was addicted to drugs and battling an eating disorder.”

Maddison attended Queen Elizabeth’s funeral last year. Her grandmother, Lady Pamela, daughter of Lord Mountbatten, is one of the Queen’s two surviving maids of honor and a former lady-in-waiting.

Maddison has fond memories of the Queen Mother, standing next to her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after seeing Trooping the Colour.

“I had never had such an amazing experience before,” she recalls. “I remember she turned to me and said, ‘There are a lot of horses, aren’t there? How many do you think?” I was a bit stunned I guess, I just replied ‘I don’t know’.’

Maddison added, “I’ve always been told to care about our family.”