Ben Foden announces he has gotten married to his girlfriend of two weeks

They had been dating two weeks.

Ben Foden has confirmed that he has married his girlfriend, Jackie, in a secret ceremony over the weekend. He shared a series of photos from their celebrations on Instagram, as he paid tribute to his wife - who he called the "greatest human being I’ve ever come across". He wrote:

"This last year has been by far my toughest and most turbulent for a number of reasons that many of you I’m sure are aware of, in some way or another. "The world has a funny way of working things out, many people think I’m a bad person - as I’m sure they’ll be many nasty comments left under this post by keyboard warriors a plenty. "But I met a girl who seriously swept me off my feet and in a time of hardship showed me love, a deep devoted love. "People will say we are mad or crazy or even fools, as @snackyjax and I had only been dating seriously for a little over 2 weeks before deciding to get married. "But when someone like her comes in to your life, why would I wait?"

He added that the people "who needed to know", like close family and friends, were told about the wedding before anybody else - including his ex wife, Una Healy, who he said had given her blessing to the couple. He continued:

"Life is short and you only get one and it’s worth living. Jackie is the greatest human being I’ve ever come across - she’s beautiful inside and out, intelligent, charming, funny, generous, kind, gentle, energetic the list goes on. "She will be a great step mum to Aoife and Tadhg and offers me a future I can’t wait to explore with her. My heart is full and I honestly couldn’t be happier, so those that want to bring negativity or try and tear me down go ahead. "My life is great and I hope you all will one day feel happiness like I feel while I write this caption. "I love you @snackyjax I can’t wait to see where our lives lead together you brought excitement and joy to my life and I couldn’t be prouder having stand at my side as Mrs Foden."