The video we’ve ALL been waiting for: Moment wedding is thrown into chaos after sister-in-law chucked black paint over bride – as attacker reveals why she REALLY sabotaged the day

We can all imagine the bride’s excited anticipation: Gemma Monk had waited almost 20 years to marry her childhood sweetheart, Ken.

She stood in the late spring sun in her wedding dress, savoring that moment of tense anticipation before walking down the aisle when suddenly “it” happened. ‘This’ is an event worthy of any soap opera story. And with an equally complex plot.

No, no one called back by citing a dramatic ‘just cause or impediment’.

At Gemma’s wedding, ‘it’ came in the form of a container of black paint thrown at point-blank range by her vengeful sister-in-law; It was the culmination of a bitter family row that left her head over heels and her £1,800 dress ruined.

Caught in the crossfire were poor Gemma, 35, and her two eldest bridesmaids, who looked as if they had just been engaged in a fierce mud wrestle.

It is undisputed that the act of sabotage was intended to ruin the happiest day of Gemma’s life. However, it has been more difficult to understand why this was done.

As the Daily Mail discovered, the roots of this family saga run deep. It’s safe to say that no big family gatherings are planned anytime soon.

As for the bride, pictures of Gemma shaking, sobbing and covered in paint were shared around the world after her sister-in-law Antonia Eastwood, 49, narrowly avoided jail when she appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on criminal damage charges.

The court heard how, in a display of quintessential British bravery, mental health worker Gemma managed to clean herself up and, wearing a borrowed dress quickly brought by a church usher, was ready to take her vows two hours later, to applause from adoring guests.

‘We waited so long for that day. “Nothing was going to stop me,” mother-of-two Gemma, from Herne Bay, Kent, told the Mail.

‘I didn’t think twice. ‘If I had to I’d walk down the corridor in my underpants and with black paint on my face.’

But why did Antonia do this? More importantly, is he sad?

Speaking exclusively to the Mail, hairdresser Antonia – or Toni as she is known – described the events of that day in May 2024.

Although he is upset about the notoriety he has brought upon himself, he has little remorse for what he did to Gemma.

‘I am ashamed of myself,’ he said. ‘I’m not. I’ve never been in trouble with the police before. Without stopping.

‘The day I was sentenced I literally had a panic attack. I was very afraid of going to jail. ‘Everything has taken its toll.’

He claims to be as confused as anyone about his own motives, saying: ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this.’ He insisted it was a ‘spur of the moment’ incident.

But after Toni beat Gemma in the hallway last year and tried to sabotage Gemma’s wedding, we can reveal that this is a family torn apart by divided loyalties and petty squabbles escalating.

As a result of the bad feelings, neither Toni nor her husband Ashley, one of Gemma’s four brothers, had been invited to Gemma and Ken’s wedding at Oakwood House registry office in Maidstone, but they decided to come anyway.

Toni says he wants to give Gemma ‘a piece of my mind’.

He blamed Gemma for ruining his own wedding by trying to trip her as she walked down the aisle last year, something Gemma dismissed as nonsense.

What about paint? He insists he was in the car by chance.

‘My daughter Hollie had just given birth to our first grandchild and I was using black paint to make hand and footprints for our new grandchild,’ she said.

‘It was child-friendly diluted black paint in a tub of about 200ml and it happened to be in the side pocket of the car.

‘I saw him [Gemma] Get out of his car; It was a few meters away. Then I shouted at him and threw the paint. It hit the back of her dress.’

Everything went to hell after that. Fists were thrown. There was even hair pulling in a wedding scene worthy of an episode of EastEnders. Gemma was literally covered in paint.

‘Then I realized I also had a bald patch on my head where the hair had broken off,’ says Toni.

Melee combat has become a farce. The bride’s father, Jason, saw what was happening as he parked his Range Rover after dropping Gemma off at the door and quickly ran over; He accidentally left the car in reverse and the car crashed into a brick wall.

Toni and Ash, 37, then fled to Greater Manchester, where Toni’s family lived and where the couple now live.

Needless to say, there were several angry phone calls that night.

Ash says: ‘My mum called and said “What’s going on, Ash? You didn’t have to do that!” he said. Others were threatening us, saying they would burn our house.

‘We were warned not to go near anyone or they would kill us.’

At Maidstone Crown Court last week, Antonia Eastwood was given a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and sentenced to 160 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to two offences.

He was also given a ten-year restraining order and told to pay £5,000 in compensation: £4,000 to Gemma and £1,000 to Oakwood House.

His claim that throwing paint was an impulsive act was also invalidated.

Judge Oliver Saxby KC clearly did not believe this, saying she had clearly attempted to ‘ruin’ Gemma’s day. He described it as ‘horrible, disgusting and evil’.

According to Toni, the animosity between the two women began to escalate after she and Ashley became a couple in 2023.

They met in Murcia, Spain, where Ash, a builder, was working at Toni’s uncle’s house and Ash came to visit him.

They both had previous relationships and say they have ended.

‘Both of our relationships effectively ended and we started spending more and more time together. This was true love; we are true soul mates,’ says Toni. ‘We returned to the UK in April 2023 and got married five months later.’

But not everyone was happy when they announced their wedding plans.

Ash believes Gemma is angry because she hasn’t married yet: ‘It was all about him and how he had been with his partner (Ken) for 20 years, but he still never asked her to marry him.

I think it was a matter of jealousy because he wasn’t getting married. And he didn’t want me to be with Toni either.’

Ash claims Gemma hasn’t exactly welcomed her new fiancée into the family. Gemma, the only girl among five siblings, says she likes to ‘be in the centre’ and doesn’t like being usurped.

The fact that Toni and Ash had set a date for their wedding seemed to further fuel her anger.

Toni says: ‘After that Gemma came in and started talking about Ash’s ex-girlfriends. ‘ ‘Aren’t you bothered by other girls?’ he would say.

I kept telling him that I wasn’t jealous of Ash’s past. ‘I knew what he did wasn’t right, but he was part of my future husband’s family.’

Gemma also admits there is ‘bad blood’ between them.

‘I didn’t really warm up to him,’ admitted Gemma, adding: ‘When I first met Toni she was telling me how she left her husband and children to be with Ashley, and Ashley left his wife and children. ‘It was like he was separating two families.’

Ash says the situation got worse when both couples went out for a night together in Maidstone.

‘We went for something to eat and then returned to a hotel where Gemma and Ken had a huge argument. Ash remembers that he started yelling at Ken about why he wouldn’t marry her.

In the ‘awkward’ aftermath of the disastrous night, the group broke up early – but not before Ash asked Ken to be best man at his wedding; an offer he accepted.

Then, just four or five weeks before they were to be married, Ken backed out.

“He texted me to tell me he couldn’t do it,” Ash says. Looks like Gemma didn’t let him. He said he didn’t want to sit alone while he was in front.’

Ash’s 16-year-old son stepped into the role.

However, Toni and Ash’s wedding was not without incident. ‘It was a nightmare,’ Toni says. ‘We got married at 4pm and by 8pm everyone was gone.’ A huge fight broke out between two guests: another brother and his girlfriend.

But the worst moment, according to Toni, was when Gemma tried to trip him as he walked down the corridor.

‘As Toni walked past you could see his foot in the corridor. This got us thinking: Was he trying to trap her?’ Ash says.

Gemma denies doing any such thing and describes the allegations as ‘delusional’.

‘I’m about 1.5 meters tall. “My legs aren’t long enough to trip him even if I wanted to,” he said.

‘I told them it was ridiculous to blame me. ‘I have since looked at videos of the wedding and saw Toni walk past me without incident.’

However, Ash and Toni remain convinced that Gemma was behind the bad feeling that day.

‘The ceremony went on and we were so happy, but when we walked into the reception my brother and his partner were still shouting at each other and apparently it was because Gemma was making a mess,’ says Ash.

“Everyone was devastated by the argument, and he finally came out and told them, ‘Enough is enough. ‘Don’t let Gemma get to you!’ I said. But the day ended suddenly.’

The next day, still angry, Ash called Gemma and told her that she had ruined their wedding day.

So does Gemma take it all on?

‘I was always close to Ashley. So all I could think was that Toni was jealous of this. “I think he and Toni were looking for someone to blame for how bad their wedding day went,” he says.

‘They didn’t say anything to me that day and to be honest we had fun. ‘We gave them money as gifts and were the first couple to join them on the dance floor.’

Whatever the truth, neither woman’s situation has been good since then.

Gemma, who had a cancer scare before her wedding (fortunately the tumor was benign), says she suffers from depression and is unable to work. ‘This made me question whether I had done something really bad,’ he said.

While Toni says she’s not ‘looking for pity’ and knows she’s done wrong, Ash says he’s lost weight, has mental health problems and suffers from insomnia.

“He regrets what he did and wishes he could turn back time,” Ash says, adding that he no longer has anything to do with his family.

‘This was a family feud and should have stayed that way.’

But there is good news for Gemma and Ken.

‘We’ll never go to Kent again,’ says Ash.

Amine.