Retired vicar Reverend Richard Coles admitted at the Hay Festival on Saturday, May 23, 2026, that he broke British law by secretly burying deceased pets' ashes alongside the bodies of their owners during his tenure in Northamptonshire.
The 64-year-old former pop star served as a priest at St Mary the Virgin church in Finedon, Northamptonshire, from 2011 until his retirement in 2022.
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Coles explained that he regularly circumvented strict United Kingdom burial regulations, which separate jurisdictions over human and animal remains, to fulfill the final wishes of his parishioners by distracting undertakers.
"It is illegal to bury a dog's ashes with a body. The reason is that there are different jurisdictions over the disposal of remains.
Human remains are one thing, and all other remains are another thing," said Reverend Richard Coles.
Coles described his methods of slipping the animal remains into the coffins before they were permanently sealed by church workers.
"So I would quite often go to the undertaker – I can't tell you this, I am breaking the law – with the dog's ashes and say, 'Have you screwed down Mrs Haversedge?'
And they'd say, 'Not yet,' and I'd say, 'Look at that bird!'" , said Reverend Richard Coles.
The former vicar defended his actions as an expression of spiritual compassion, matching what he described as the expansive nature of divine forgiveness.
"There is a wideness to God's mercy like the wideness of the sea, and it's our job to live in accordance with that," said Reverend Richard Coles.
He noted that previous clergymen at the parish also ignored strict burial protocols by allowing unbaptised individuals and suicide victims into the main churchyard, long before the Church of England officially updated its rules to permit full Christian funerals for those groups in 2015.
"I know that my predecessors didn't really care," said Reverend Richard Coles.
Coles stated that those earlier priests operated under the same principles of compassion that guided his own illicit actions with the pet ashes.
"They would extend mercy, because there are no limits to God's mercy," said Reverend Richard Coles.
Beyond his church career, Coles achieved fame in the 1980s with the bands Bronski Beat and the Communards before studying theology in 2005, and later appeared on reality television programs such as Strictly Come Dancing and I'm A Celebrity...
Get Me Out of Here!
During his appearance on the 2024 edition of the jungle reality show, Coles discussed his perspective on being an openly gay clergyman within the institution.
"Never given it a moment's twinge of anxiety over whether God thought it was alright or not," said Reverend Richard Coles.
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He expressed a complete willingness to debate critics regarding his identity and his interpretation of historical church records.
"Whether other people thought it was alright or not, well I'm happy to have that argument," said Reverend Richard Coles.
He maintained that historical precedents for gay individuals existed within the ministry spanning back centuries.
"Also, I was not the first.
Sometimes I look at documents from the early church, or the church of the middle ages and I just think – so gay," said Reverend Richard Coles.
Additionally, Coles shared an anecdote in June 2025 on Rylan Clark's How to Be in Love podcast about receiving a lifetime ban from Avis rent-a-car following a period of heavy drug use in Ibiza, Spain, after the Communards paused their musical career.
"It was really after the band [The Communards] reached its highest point and we were taking a break, which we are still on 35 years later.
That was when sex and drugs and rock and roll came together for me and I took some time out and I went to Ibiza and I just was s-*** for many, many months.
There was one summer I went, and I went with a bunch of people, and we all just took ecstasy and acid, oh, everything really.
And I remember we got barred from Avis rent-a-car for life because we got through a lot of vehicles.
Mavis from Avis, she was furious," said Reverend Richard Coles.
The podcast host immediately sought clarification regarding the rental car company restriction during the interview session.
"Stop! Got barred from Avis?"
asked Rylan Clark.
The media personality and former clergyman concluded the discussion by confirming the permanent nature of the vehicle rental ban.
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"Yeah, for life," said Reverend Richard Coles.
