In a surprise wedding, British rock legend Eric Clapton tied the knot on New Year's Day with his 25-year-old American sweetheart, Melia McEnery, the priest who presided over the service confirmed Thursday.
The secret ceremony took place at 15th-century St. Mary Magdalen Church in the small southern English town of Ripley, where Clapton grew up (he currently resides in nearby Surrey).
The nuptials followed the baptism of the guitar hero's two children--Julie Rose, his six-month-old daughter with McEnery and Ruth Patricia, his 16-year-old daughter with former flame Yvonne Kelly.
"It was a very happy occasion and I pray for God's blessing upon Eric and Melia in their married life as well as for Julie and Ruth at the beginning of their Christian lives," the Reverend Christopher Elson says in a statement.
Clapton, 56, first laid eyes on McEnery--a native of Columbus, Ohio, and one of six children--while on a visit to Los Angeles, where she was living at the time with her high-school sweetheart and training to be a graphic artist.
The couple have had something of a tumultous two-year relationship. They fell in love in 1999, broke up in 2000, quickly reconciled and had Julie Rose, who was born on June 12, 2001. Clapton reportedly popped the question on Father's Day (appropriately enough, given their age difference).
While Clapton's reps declined to comment, Elson says he knew in advance of the couple's plans to marry and helped to arrange the service, which the two wanted to keep hush-hush.
A statement issued by the church confirmed that a small gathering of close friends and family, including Melia's parents, attended the nuptials.
Britain's Sun reported that guests thought they were invited to the children's baptism and had no idea about the wedding until the vicar summoned the rocker and his bride-to-be to come forward and swap marriage vows.
Clapton's 51-year-old bandmate Andy Fairweather-Low, Julie Rose's godfather, was on hand for the ceremonies, as was his wife, Barbara, who described in detail exactly how old Slowhand pulled a fast one at the altar.
"We went there thinking it was just a christening for the girls," Barbara tells the Sun. "But at the end of the ceremony the vicar said, 'We have two people here who to get married as well.' Then Eric stepped forward and everyone cheered. Everybody was very happy for them."
She then added: "It was a lovely day--only close friends and family were invited as Eric wanted to keep it private. It was a fabulous occasion for everyone there."
As a new father and husband, Clapton has indicated he has reached a personal and professional crossroads. Although he says he won't hang up his guitar for good, he says last year's Reptile tour would be his last.
This is the second marriage for Clapton, who made his mark playing with legendary British bands The Yardbirds and Cream, fronting Derek and the Dominos and backing his late friend George Harrison before going solo in the early '70s. The three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 15-time Grammy winner was married once before for nine years to Harrison's ex-wife, Patti Boyd, whom he divorced in 1988.
Before hooking up with McEnery, Clapton romanced the likes of Sheryl Crow and Joan Osborne. Aside from his two daugthers, he had a son, Conor, with Italian actress Lori Del Santo. The child died at the age of four after falling out of Clapton's New York high-rise apartment 11 years ago. Clapton wrote the Grammy-winning hit song "Tears in Heaven" in the boy's honor.
After the wedding, Clapton and McEnery strode outside the churchyard and paid an emotional visit to the gravesite where Conor is buried.