By MATHEW DEARNALEY and RENEE KIRIONA
Rugby superstar Jonah Lomu has kept his family in the dark over his second marriage in a replay of when he first exchanged wedding vows seven years ago.
Lomu family members are understood to have been left off the guest list at a secret ceremony
in which the 28-year-old winger wed 30-year-old Ponsonby marketing executive Fiona Taylor at a luxury lodge on Waiheke Island on Thursday.
In 1996 the family were taken by surprise when Lomu tied the knot with Tanya Rutter in Auckland, apparently scared his parents would not approve his marrying at the tender age of 20 an even younger bride.
He later made it up to them with a second wedding ceremony in Rutter's native South Africa, attended by his father Semisi and mother Hepisipapiu, who was deeply distressed about the initial snub.
Close relatives of Lomu contacted by the Weekend Herald, including the older of his two sisters and his paternal grandparents, said they knew nothing of the latest wedding.
"I don't have a clue," said his sister, medical student Shontelle Sela Lomu, 21, yesterday.
Asked if she was concerned at not being invited to the wedding, she said: "Not really, because I am never around." She had just arrived back from Otago University.
The All Black's parents could not be reached for comment but the wedding was news at the Ellerslie pensioner flat of his grandparents Sione and Sela Lomu, who said they had heard of Taylor but did not know her.
Lomu's brother, John, refused to comment.
A source said his new bride's family and his manager, Phil Kingsley-Jones, were among 16 guests at this week's ceremony - shielded by six security guards and "confidentiality agreements all over the place" to protect an exclusive deal with a women's magazine.
They were ferried in and out by helicopter, although Lomu had been spotted by locals coming and going from the island over several weeks.
The newlyweds kept themselves out of the public eye again yesterday, although the wedding was the talk of the island.
