When Imran Khan's ex-wife Jemima said she wished she had an arranged marriage: 'Could have saved me a lot of heartache'

Jemima Goldsmith got married at 52 to Cameron O’Reilly. Years ago, she said she wished she'd had an arranged marriage instead of years of ‘heartache, headache’.

British filmmaker and producer Jemima Goldsmith has spent decades in the spotlight, thanks in part to her high-profile romances. More than two decades after her 2004 divorce from Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, the 52-year-old recently married Irish-Australian financier Cameron O’Reilly, 62, in an intimate ceremony.

A private ceremony and a fresh start

Confirmation of the nuptials came not from a press release, but via an Instagram post by her sister-in-law, Jemima Jones, who wrote, “Celebrating Jemima and Cameron’s wedding, with my favourite date, what a happy day!” According to reports, the couple’s romance grew from a quiet year-long dating period that built upon a foundation of close friendship and shared work in film production.

Jemima Goldsmith's past take on arranged marriages

The milestone contrasts with Jemima’s past reflections on romance. In 2023, while in Australia promoting her romantic comedy What’s Love Got To Do With It?, the film producer pondered whether traditional matchmaking might have spared her years of emotional upheaval.

Having weathered public breakups with actors like Hugh Grant and Russell Brand — and a nine-year marriage to Imran Khan that began when she was just 21 — Jemima admitted she might have benefited from a different path. “Frankly speaking personally, [arranged marriage] could have saved me a lot of heartache and headaches if I’d just had someone to sort it out for me,” she told broadcasters, The Independent reported in January 2023.

Self-aware as ever, she acknowledged the irony of her own life choices, describing herself as 'someone who did the absolute opposite'. Still, she questioned how modern non-traditional families might handle such trust, asking, “If you had sane, functional parents who would agree – which I don’t – who would they choose for you, and would it work?” Jemima is the daughter of the late billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith and the late socialite, Lady Annabel Goldsmith.

Lessons from Pakistan

Jemima’s interest in arranged marriages was not purely academic; she highlighted that it was forged during her years living with Imran's family in Pakistan, where she witnessed the tradition firsthand: “Some of them were – to me, with my preconceptions – surprisingly happy and successful... there’s a lot to be said for simmer then boil.”

While Jemima once mused about the security of an orchestrated match, her recent quiet walk down the aisle proves that love found organically — after time to simmer — can yield its own happy ending.

Moving in before the wows: a modern alternative?

While arranged marriages offer one framework for compatibility, modern relationship experts sometimes point to another step before tying the knot: cohabitation.

Matchmaker and dating coach Oendrila Kapoor shared in a June 2026 Instagram post that a trial run of living together is invaluable. According to her, you only truly get to know someone’s authentic self — quirks, cleanliness standards, and pet peeves — when sharing the same space 24/7. Click here to read everything she said.