Widow and widower who fell in love queuing to pay respect to late Queen tie knot

An elderly couple who fell in love whilst queuing to pay their respects to the late Queen have tied the knot.

Joyce Lambert, 89, and Norman Giller, 85, first met in 2019 but it wasn’t until September 2022, whilst standing in line to witness the coffin of Elizabeth II, that they realised that they both had found love.

The pair, who were both widowed, were first introduced through their children five years ago and have now said that “it’s never too late to find love”.

The happy couple tied the knot at an intimate wedding on Southend-on-Sea, following a whirlwind engagement that saw Giller popping the question just six weeks earlier in the exact same spot.

Lambert said that the pair realised that they loved one another whilst waiting to see the lying-in-state, which had a peak wait time of over 24 hours.

Speaking to Mail Online, Giller, a former sports journalist, said that finding love later in life is a “wonderful feeling”, adding that the pair are “like a couple of kids”.

“Anyone who comes within range of us can feel our love. It’s like we’re spreading it around like pollen.”

The pair are avid theatre-lovers and had their honeymoon in London, where they saw three shows – Les Misérables, Six and Operation Mincemeat.

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Lambert, a former Tory councillor, was a close confidant of Sir David Amess, the MP who was fatally stabbed at a constituency surgery in 2021.

She had planned to attend the surgery that fateful day, though she was absent on October 15, 2021.

Giller, who used to work on Fleet Street and is also the author to an impressive 121 books, said that the newlyweds’ differing politics had not hindered them.

“I might be Joyce’s toy boy but I’m not her Tory boy,” he joked.

Following the late Queen’s death, people from all over the world came to London to pay their respects.

The queue’s maximum length was 10 miles – with 6.9 miles from Westminster to Southwark, and a three-mile zigzag queue in Southwark Park.

People were told that they would likely be standing for long periods of times, with few opportunities to sit down as it was constantly moving.