Olympic champion meets his match

08.03.17: MILLIONS OF PEOPLE yesterday watched a former Olympic triple gold medallist cross the threshold in the same way he'd crossed the finishing line ­ in style.

In one of the great comebacks of the century, Orson Taylor wed Gaynor Hockney in a spectacular ceremony shown live to a viewing audience of 400m.

The rise and rise of OT began a decade ago at the 2008 Olympics with three gold medals. He retired from amateur athletics that year at the behest of Oprah Winfrey, to host a chat show targeted at ghetto youth. The programme, called How High Can You Go?, was soon outstripping Winfrey's own show in the ratings, which led to a rift between the two African American celebrities, and OT left to set up his own TV empire.

A series of stressful legal battles with Winfrey sent Taylor down the slippery slope of drug addiction. By the fifth anniversary of his triple gold, he was serving a three-year term in Chicago Camp Rehab, for buying crack in one of the city's drug-free zones.

It was at Camp Rehab that Taylor met the Most Reverend Rabb-Imam David, the self-proclaimed prophet and charismatic creator of the 3Rs (the three religions), the new urban 'multifaith' church. Under David's guidance, Taylor vowed to devote his life to the 'underclass'.

Taylor met Hockney, the flamboyant deputy director of Hillary Clinton's international fem-aid agency, Caring Now, when she appeared on the Most Reverend David Show, which Orson has been co-hosting since his release from rehab last year. MF