William Elan Champion was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England where his father, Timothy Champion, is a professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton. As a youth, his musical influences included Tom Waits and traditional Irish folk music. He grew up playing guitar, but also had experience on the piano, bass, and tin whistle. Before William Champion joined Coldplay, he performed in a band called Fat Hamster.Champion was the first Coldplay member to marry: He married Marianne Dark, a teacher, in 2003. Their first child, a girl named Ava, was born on 28 April 2006. On 7 May 2008, Marianne gave birth to fraternal twins Juno and Rex.^[1]