‘Luckiest girl in the world’ – kidnap victim tells of love for Scots husband

Snacking on dried mangoes on the morning of her Mormon wedding day in Hawaii, former child kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart could not quite believe that Aberdonian Matthew Gilmour was finally becoming her husband.

A decade after being kidnapped from her bedroom, and repeatedly raped for nine months, Ms Smart, 24, believes her new-found happiness has made up for the lost innocence of her teenage years when she was forced to “marry” Brian David Mitchell, 58, and live on the run with him and his wife Wanda Barzee, 66, in Utah.

Speaking for the first time since news of their wedding broke to PEOPLE magazine, the couple have revealed details of their life together.

Three years ago, Ms Smart and Mr Gilmour met in Paris, while performing Mormon missionary work in the French capital.

Mr Gilmour, 22, had never heard of the Utah teenager or knew any details of her brutal kidnapping ordeal.

“I got to know her as she truly is,” he said.

“The thing that attracted me the most to her at the beginning and now is how confident she is, especially considering everything she has been through.”

Mr Gilmour invited Ms Smart to his family home in Scotland, when the couple decided they were meant for one another.

“Things were already in bloom,” Ms Smart explained as she recalled the trip. Mr Gilmour added: “I’d known for a long time that I was in love with her.”

After a visit to the Smart house in Salt Lake City, several months later, Mr Gilmour approached her father, Ed, 56, for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

“I simply said ‘Elizabeth Ann Smart, will you marry me?”’ he said. “And then I wasn’t nervous.”

The happy couple initially planned to tie the knot in Salt Lake City, but the public scrutiny convinced Ms Smart that Hawaii would be a wiser choice. Following her rescue, she first went there in 2003, as a 15-year-old, to help heal her mind amid the trauma of her ordeal.

With the wedding brought forward, Ms Smart first jetted to New York for her dress fitting.

When the big day arrived she travelled to Hawaii with her father, mother Lois, 54, siblings, and best friend Katy. Wearing a kilt, Mr Gilmour was joined by his uncle Neville Henderson.

After exchanging their vows, the couple returned to the Turtle Bay Resort to celebrate with guests including Ms Smart’s sister Mary Katherine, 19, and brothers Charles, 25 and Andrew, 21.

“She puts the colours inside my world,” said Mr Gilmour. “It was black and white before she came into my life.”

Ms Smart said the feeling was mutual. “Nine years ago [after being rescued], I said I was the luckiest girl in the world,” she said.

“I definitely feel that way today. Spending my wedding day with the people I love the most has been unbelievable.”

• The interview originally appeared in PEOPLE magazine