If Eddie Murphy ever proposed to you, chances are you'd either think "Not with your wayward reputation," or "Hang on, I'm a chap and we've never even met. How odd," but not Tracey Edmonds.

Eddie Murphy married his girlfriend Tracey Edmonds yesterday on a private island in French Polynesia, simultaneously putting all his past relationship woes behind him. And isn't getting married on New Year's Day the perfect way to start a year? It's like Eddie Murphy is looking Tracey Edmonds in the eye and telling her "This is how it'll be for us all year, or at least until I get you pregnant, deny getting you pregnant, leave you for another woman, repeatedly dodge your requests for a DNA test until I'm ordered to take one by a court and then do the voice of a funny donkey for a tired cartoon sequel to pay off all my child support bills. So about three weeks, then."

Women are desperately complicated creatures, so hats off to Eddie Murphy for figuring them out so flawlessly. If you want a woman to like you, Eddie Murphy has reasoned, you don't need to bother with flowers or chocolates or compliments or any of that crap – all you need is a willingness to get matching tattoos and sperm so potent that it dissolves metal.

It certainly worked for Eddie Murphy as far as Mel B was concerned, and the pair of them would have absolutely got married if Eddie hadn't blown it all by splitting up with her on Dutch TV and claiming that the baby wasn't his. We've heard that women view this kind of behaviour on the same kind of level as when you don't empty the kitchen bin for them, and as such Eddie Murphy and Mel B were over as soon as they began.

However, this left an opening for film producer Tracey Edmonds, who saw the way that Eddie Murphy knocked Mel B up, dumped her, tried wriggling out of taking a paternity test several times and eventually grudgingly admitted that he was the father of the baby and thought "I want a bit of that!" Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds got engaged and yesterday they got married – a turnaround so fast that Eddie didn't even have the chance to even slightly knock her up first, let alone get tattoos or accuse her of being a slag on European television. Reuters reports:

Comedian Eddie Murphy married film producer Tracey Edmonds on a private island in French Polynesia on Tuesday, People magazine reported. The sunset ceremony, attended by 25 guests, took place off Bora Bora, a Pacific island about 140 miles northwest of Tahiti, People said, citing the couple's representatives.

Of course, it'd be churlish of us not to wish Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds a long, happy, uncomplicated marriage. They're both grown-ups and know exactly what they're getting themselves into, and we don't don't doubt that they'll be completely perfect for one another for as many days as this marriage lasts. 

The only thing that does concern us, though, is that Tracey Edmonds might get herself involved in a horrible game of one-upmanship with Mel B's new husband Stephen Belafonte to see who's the most unsuitable film producer partner for their respective spouses. Because, you know, how do you top killing a duck with a brick?

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Eddie Murphy marries in French Polynesia: report - Reuters