Kate Winslet Space Trip: Sir Richard Branson Gives Actress $200,000 Virgin Galactic Space Flight
Newly wed Kate Winslet will celebrate with a trip to space. The 37-year-old actress has just been given a free ticket to travel to space aboard one of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space flights, according to The Telegraph.
Winslet recently married 34-year-old Ned Rocknroll, Branson's nephew. Branson reportedly offered Winslet the ticket after the actress rescued his mother Eve from a fire at his Necker Island retreat last year, according to the Sun.
"I'm not sure she wants to go on a one-way trip to Mars, but she wants to go into space," Branson said earlier this year.
Winslet married Ned earlier this month in a secret ceremony in New York City. She was reportedly given away by her "Titanic" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
Only her two children and "very few friends and family" attended the wedding, a representative for the "Titanic" actress revealed this week.
The Oscar-winner actress had been engaged to Rocknroll since the summer and the wedding was held earlier this month, according to BBC.
This is Winslet's third marriage. She has daughter Mia with her ex-husband director Jim Threapleton, who she was married to for three years until 2001, and son Joe with director Sam Mendes, who she divorced in 2010.
Ned works part-time for Virgin Galactic which plans to begin offering commercial flights to space as early as next year.
Tickets for the space trip are sold for nearly $200,000. The two-hour round-trip takes passengers roughly 60 miles above Earth, allowing them to experience a gravity-free environment and see the planet's curvature.
Nearly 550 people have already purchased tickets including famous scientist Stephen Hawking, British comedian Russell Brand and "Two and a Half Man" actor Ashton Kutcher, according to the Telegraph.
