My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star makes first public appearance after announcing plans for divorce

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star makes first public appearance after announcing plans for divorce

• Josie McFayden was just 16 when she married Swanley on the hit TV show
• After less than two years of marriage the couple are to divorce
• 'I didn’t want to be bullied I still wanted to be treated fair,' she says
  

By Sadie Whitelocks
UPDATED: 11:07 EST, 11 June 2012

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Josie McFayden stepped into the public spotlight today for the first time since announcing her decision to divorce from husband Swanley Smith.

The duo, who were the first couple to marry on the hit TV show in front of 6.5million viewers two years ago, split amid a string of fights and blazing rows.

Just last month when the separation came to light she threatened to burn her five-stone net and diamante wedding gown, but today at the ITV studios in London she remained calm and composed.

Calm and composed: Josie McFadyen pictured outside the ITV studios

Sporting highlighted tresses and red lipstick the 18-year-old told This Morning presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby: 'No, I would never burn it, my mummy and my daddy got me that dress and that something they didn’t know was going to not work out, it’s not their fault, it’s not the dress's fault, it’s Swanley’s fault.'

'At the time I was really angry with Swanley.'

Ms McFayden was just 16 when she married Swanley in an enormous frilly white frock followed by a team of bridesmaids dressed in hot pink in a ceremony in July 2010. 

Now after less than two years of marriage and the birth of a daughter, Josie, 18, is planning a divorce from her husband.

Lavish affair: Swanley and Josie Smith married in an extravagant ceremony when she was just 16, in front of 6.5million viewers

Rocky relationship: The pair split after less than two years of marriage following constant fights

Josie has moved out of the couple's caravan and is living in a house in Middlesex with their eight-month-old child, also called Josie, and her mother.

Josie previously told how she was 'swept off her feet' by Swanley, 21, who she met on a social networking site six months before they married in her dream fairytale wedding.

But she revealed that cracks started to appear just days after the wedding and accused Swanley of 'bullying her.'

She said: 'Obviously every girl wants to get married… but it just never worked out for me it was a nightmare from day one.

'I think things changed and I got to know the real him. It was like he was putting on this big lie.

'He’d stop me from seeing my mum and my brothers and sister. He would just call them names.

'Physically he put me down in myself... I didn’t want to be bullied I still wanted to be treated fair.'

No holds barred: Guests typically dress to impress in the traveller weddings featured on the hit programme

Big day: Josie's little brother John McFadyen, 18, after saying his vows on the show to Cheyenne Pidgley, 16, who he met at his sister's wedding reception

In response Swanley said: 'How can Josie feel bullied when she had the freedom to do what she wanted. If she wanted to go out with friends then it didn’t bother me.'

Josie said she tried to make the marriage work as the travelling community frowns upon divorce and believe that the family comes before anything else. She admitted that 'in her world' the man comes first and wives are expected to obey.

But the final straw came when she discovered Swanley had secretly spent their savings.

The couple received a £105,000 compensation payment from Surrey County Council after they were forced to leave the site where they were living in Caterham when it was declared contaminated.

But Josie claimed she didn't see any of the money while her husband gave half to his family and spent the rest buying himself X Box games and a £13,000 Rolex watch.

She revealed that Swanley hasn't been to visit his daughter since the couple split but she hopes he will still play a part in her life.

Josie admitted that after her own experience she hopes her daughter won't get married until she's in her twenties. 'I did get married too young. I thought I was ready but I think I was more in love with being in love.'

She added that she knows many other travelling couples who married young and are still very happy, including her brother John McFadyen who met his wife Cheyenne at her own wedding.

She is now back with dad Chris and mum Josie at their home in Middlesex, where she is sharing a room with her sister Berry, 14.

The bigger the better: Bride Danielle Marry, from Corby, Northamptonshire, and her bridesmaids wore huge dresses typical of the TV show

Young love: Danielle and Brendan Marry saying their vows at Our Lady Of Walsingham Catholic Church in Corby, Northamptonshire, on series four of Big Fat Gypsy Wedding earlier this month

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