Kate Winslet Weds Ned RocknRoll, Richard Branson’s Nephew

Well, it looks like Kate is officially off the market. Yesterday, her publicist confirmed the 37-year-old actress secretly wed her 34-year-old boyfriend Ned RocknRoll in a private New York ceremony earlier this month.

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Siu Chiu / Reuters

Kate Winslet is shown with Ned Rocknroll in Hong Kong in December 9, 2012.

Well, it looks like Kate is officially off the market. Yesterday, her publicist confirmed the 37-year-old actress quietly wed her 34-year-old boyfriend Ned RocknRoll in a private ceremony in New York City earlier this month.

Yes, you read that right – Winslet’s husband’s legal name is Ned RocknRoll (don’t worry, we’ll explain that soon). According to her representative, the two had been engaged since the summer and got married in front of a small group of friends and family — including Winslet’s Titanic co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, who reportedly gave the bride away.

Though originally born Ned Abel Smith, RocknRoll is the nephew of Virgin Group founder and billionaire Sir Richard Branson. Apparently, Ned and Kate met at Necker Island, Branson’s private island in the Caribbean, in August 2011. During that same visit, Tropical Storm Irene (better known as Hurricane Irene) set the business magnate’s $70 million house on fire and Winslet somewhat famously saved Branson’s 90-year-old mother.

If his last name clearly wasn’t enough to show you that Winslet’s new hubby has a sense of humor, RocknRoll also happens to be the Head of Marketing Promotion and Astronaut Experience at Branson’s Virgin Galactic, a title that he apparently made up himself. His former wife explained why he changed his name to the Daily Mail:

The whole thing was about having fun with your name. He thought we all took ourselves too seriously so it was about reacting against it. He looked into just being ‘Ned’, with no surname at all but, apparently, that’s illegal so we couldn’t do it.

It is Winslet’s third marriage after her former marriages to director Sam Mendes and director Jim Threapleton. It is Rocknroll’s second marriage after his previous marriage to British socialite Eliza Pearson.