Mark Gatiss Married Ian Hallard after 10 Years of Civil Partnership

What better way of celebrating ten years of a civil partnership than to get married, right?

Well, Mark Gatiss and his longtime partner, Ian Hollard, seemed to have thought so. 

Gatiss, best known for playing the mighty-smart Mycroft Holmes in BBC's rendition of Sherlock, tied the knot with Hollard in 2018 as a celebration of ten years of civil partnership. 

Mark Gatiss with his husband Ian Hollard (Source: Instagram)

Mark Gatiss on Getting Married

During an interaction with the Attitude podcast, the actor quipped how he was getting married "only because the seating is better and we get free white wine."

On a more serious note, the actor discussed how the couple had two reasons for getting married. 

Firstly, they were ringing the wedding bells because they could.

Secondly, he added, "There are so many things like this I think where you argue with people and go - 'do you know in 80 months time this will look like you're defending the slave trade. This will look ridiculous!' and it does." 

Over time, the couple had realized that the "special privilege" of the civil partnership was no longer what they sought. 

Apparently, the couple wanted a sense of normalcy, to be "the same as everyone else."

For the longest of time, neither Gatiss nor Hollard's family really knew how the two first met. 

"We didn't tell them until the day we got married," the actor confessed. 

Turns out, they had lied and told everyone that they met at a party when in fact, they met through a dating platform aptly named Gay.com.

While online dating wasn't nearly as widespread in 2000 as it is today, Gatiss' parents weren't very keen about the fact that their son was gay. 

Mark Gatiss on Coming Out as Gay

In an interview with The Guardian, Gatiss recalled how he came out to his family. 

Initially, he had only professed his orientation to his mother, who promptly asked him to keep it from his dad. She supposedly took the act of coming out to his dad off his hands. 

But only after about a year did he realize that the doting wife had kept the news from her husband, dreading that he would not be happy about it. 

"A year later, I realized that they had dealt with it by not dealing with it at all," he told the publication. 

So, Gatiss took it upon himself and came out as a gay man to his entire family. 

During that same conversation, he shared that he had a girlfriend way before he had a boyfriend. 

"It was just a phase," he said in retrospect before adding, "I think a lot of people who say they are bisexual aren't."

The talented actor slash writer confessed that he loved his girlfriend dearly and that they shared a "very nice time" together, but in his heart of hearts, he knew that he had always been predominantly gay. 

 So, when he met his now-husband on the dating site, and everything just clicked, he decided to run with it. 

They got married in Middle Temple, in the City of London, underneath a portrait of Edward Carson QC, the man who prosecuted Oscar Wilde.