Richard Gere and Spanish fiancée Alejandra Silva tie the knot

Four years after US actor Richard Gere began a relationship with Alejandra Silva, a Spanish entrepreneur who is 33 years his junior, the couple were married in early April at a civil wedding, said ¡Hola! magazine quoting sources close to both.

Gere, 68, and Silva, 35, will hold a private ceremony at their home in New York on May 6, the celebrity news magazine said. Another Spanish media outlet had earlier reported that the wedding would take place on May 5.

It was Gere’s third time tying the knot following his marriages to supermodel Cindy Crawford and actress Carey Lowell, with whom he had a son, Homer James, who is now 18. For Silva, it was her second; she was previously married to mining magnate Govind Friedland, and has a five-year-old son named Albert.

“I was a little bit lost, without light, and meeting him gave meaning to my life,” said Silva in statements to ¡Hola!. Gere, in turn, said that “I have found the quiet, happy life that I had always sought.”

The star of movies like Pretty Woman and Chicago began his relationship with the Galician-born Silva in 2014, in the Italian seaside resort of Positano, on the Amalfi coast. They were first seen together in 2015, when Gere and Silva showed up together for the Madrid premiere of Time Out of Mind, where Gere plays a homeless man.

Silva is the daughter of a prominent Spanish constructor and former financial vice-president of Real Madrid, Ignacio Silva. She said that the actor was a longtime family friend, and that they became sentimentally involved when she was going through divorce proceedings with Friedland following an eight-year marriage.

It was their charity work that brought them together, says the couple. Both have been involved in numerous good causes, and Silva defines herself as an activist who currently works with an organization to help the homeless, the RAIS Foundation.

The newlyweds have said they would like to start a family, although ¡Hola! reported that Silva is not pregnant. Rumors about a possible pregnancy began circulating due to a visit to a fertility treatment clinic in New York City, where Silva and her son have been living for several months.

English version by Susana Urra.