There is something very extraordinary about a duchess’ sister attending your wedding, something that never happens to American girls. Meet Camilla Hook, whose storybook romance ended in a lavish wedding to a British actor. Sam Holland’s wife may mind, however, that the biggest day of her life was upstaged in media circles by an extended member of the British Royal Family.
Photo: Camilla Hook (left) with you-know-who (right)
Sadly all of the media reports are about her famous guest. One typical misdirected account of the wedding ceremony went like this: “As she made her way into the church all eyes – and indeed cameras – were on the Duchess of Cambridge’s younger sister. She turned heads in a low-cut raspberry-coloured silk jersey ‘Forever’ dress by Issa. The body-skimming dress, which showcased single Pippa’s enviable figure and world-famous derriere, was accessorised with a matching fascinator with net veil and black clutch bag and set off with a pair of black heels.”
Please! And yes, they are talking about none other than Pippa Middleton, younger sister of the future Queen of England, whose every move is getting followed in the British press like a relentless gang of cats on a sparrow. You can read a wedding account here, which got me a little upset for poor Camilla Hook so it is time for someone to talk about the bride.
Biography: Camilla Hook is listed as a surveyor (i.e. appraiser) for a real estate company in London called Cushman & Wakefield, where we understand she is supervising a department. Her professional profile page is here.
She is 28 years old, the same age as her husband, and was raised in Camptoun Holdings, East Lothian in Scotland where she was perhaps spoiled as an only child. Her mom and dad (Christian Hook) are still together as husband and wife. You can read the short wedding announcement for their daughter which appeared in the Times of London here. In one of the wedding photos, you can see that dad ushered Camilla down the aisle in a traditional Scottish kilt.
Her husband is Sam Holland, an actor of little note in Great Britain who is more famous for tragedy than conquests on screen. He lost several members of his family in the great earthquake and tsunami in 2004 that decimated the Pacific Rim. In an interview published in the Telegraph newspaper last year, which you can read here, Sam opined about his future wife. “Camilla has been a great source of comfort to me over the years. We’re very happy.”
They were married on May 18th, 2012 in Scotland, very near her parent’s home outside of Edinburgh in an outdoors wedding in a small village called Aberlady. The couple first met at Durham University in northern England, so they were college sweethearts who have been seeing each other almost ten years already. And yes, it was time to get married for sure. At age 28, Camilla’s biological clock is ticking down, so the time is right for them to start a family.
One of Camilla’s hobbies is bicycling and she has used the activity as a fundraiser for local charities. That shows me a woman with a good heart. She raised over $1,000 in one such cycling event to help build a new school in impoverished Tanzania, Africa. You can read about her altruism here.
But Camilla’s main passion is the ponies. She was a jockey who has rode horses competitively until eight years ago. You can see her list of races and accomplishments here and confirm that she had two first place finishes while mounting Mighty Mulligan at Allerton Park and Gleneagles, in 2002 and 2001 respectively.
We cannot find her on any of the social media sites including Facebook and Twitter. That is strange for a woman her age so we may have missed them. Help us if you can because it is time for our newlywed to get some well-deserved attention.
She met Pippa in 2002 while taking a cooking class right after she graduated, and that relationship was the reason for the media frenzy at her wedding this weekend, on a day that is supposed to be entirely about her. We hope that Camilla Hook enjoyed her day, nonetheless, and that now as Sam Holland’s wife she will experience marital bliss for the rest of her days.
