Julian Barnes, the award-winning author of "The Sense of an Ending," has revealed that he quietly remarried last year while continuing to live with a rare form of blood cancer.

The news came just days before his 80th birthday and surprised even his closest friends.

Barnes married publisher Rachel Cugnoni in a small, private ceremony in August 2025. According to The Telegraph, only eight people attended the wedding.

The couple kept the marriage secret for months and shared the news publicly for the first time during Barnes' 80th birthday celebration on Jan. 19, which was attended by about 100 guests.

During the party, Barnes addressed the crowd and shared a story from years earlier.

He recalled a speech he gave in 2011, when Cugnoni jokingly told him it was so good that he should give a speech at her wedding someday.

According to DailyMail, standing before the guests, Barnes said, "Well, I suppose this is it." The room quickly filled with applause once people realized what he meant. Barnes later said the moment was "really moving."

Barnes and Cugnoni have known each other for about 30 years and have been in a relationship for around eight.

Author Julian Barnes Shares Health Update

Their marriage marks a new chapter for the writer, who was previously married to literary agent Pat Kavanagh.

Kavanagh died in 2008 from an aggressive brain cancer, just 37 days after her diagnosis. Barnes has often spoken about how deeply that loss affected him.

"I thought, that's a really crappy age to get widowed," Barnes said, reflecting on being 62 at the time.

He admitted that for a long while, he did not believe he would find love again, People reported.

In addition to sharing news of his marriage, Barnes recently opened up about his health. Speaking on NPR's "Fresh Air" podcast, he revealed that he was diagnosed nearly six years ago with a rare form of blood cancer. The illness was discovered through a routine blood test.

"It's not curable," Barnes said, explaining that he takes chemotherapy pills every day. However, he added that the disease is stable and that doctors believe it likely will not shorten his life.

All of this has happened during what Barnes described as an unusually busy period, which included his marriage, a serious back operation, his milestone birthday, and the release of his latest novel, "Departure(s)."

Barnes noted that Cugnoni has been fully supportive of his work and his past. "I just think it's right to remember and write about the dead," he said.

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