Ex-Tory minister’s daughter weds Indian lover

LONDON - A former British minister’s daughter has tied the knot with her Indian lover without informing her parents.

Alexandra, the daughter of disgraced former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken, got married to Inderjot Singh in Amritsar city of India’s northern state Punjab, the Daily Mail reported here.

Their marriage was blessed by 150 holy men from the Nihang sect, an armed Sikh order to which her husband belongs. However, her parents Jonathan and Lolicia, were absent from the celebrations.

Alexandra, who has changed her name to Harvinder Kaur Khalsa, admitted that she kept the wedding a secret from everyone except her twin sister Victoria, who “insisted” on attending.

“When I said, ‘Daddy, I might be wearing a turban next time you see me’, it was a bit of a shock,” she told Hello! magazine. “But my father loves my husband - it’s impossible not to. He’s happy for us.”

The minister, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 1999 after being convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice, has since visited the newlyweds in India.

Alexandra, 30, first spotted her future husband two years ago when she was practising yoga at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Although she spent a week in his company, they did not exchange a single word. It was only on her second visit that they declared their feelings for each other and decided to marry.

“I knew I was blindly in love with this man, having never spoken a word to him,” she said. “I knew straight away he was my husband. Within one second it was completely clear,” she was quoted as saying.

Alexandra and her twin were 18 when their father was jailed. Soon after, the details of their father’s secret love-child by Soraya Khashoggi, the ex-wife of international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, emerged.

The twins suddenly found themselves with a half-sister, Petrina. The twins became regular faces on London’s social circuit, often rubbing shoulders with royalty.

After her family’s money and possessions were seized, Alexandra moved to Hollywood where she performed psychic readings for celebrities. She later set up a yoga retreat in Los Angeles.

Now she is keen to start a family. And it seems she may have decided against a return to life in Britain. “I shall have my children running around the Himalayas,” she said.