Meet Thailand's number one celebrity couple - tennis star Paradorn Srichapan, 29, and Miss Universe 2005 Natalie Glebova, 26. Paradorn's tennis career may have hit a slump, but he's still Thailand's most adored sports star. Over the years he has romanced a string of the country's most beautiful women - models, actresses and singers. All the beauties ended up with broken hearts as they failed to capture the handsome athlete.Roll forward to 2005. Thailand hosts the Miss Universe competition and the winner is a Canadian beauty of Russian descent, Natalie Glebova. A popular choice, she announces that she adores Thailand. A few months later she appears at the Thailand Tennis Open on behalf of one of her sponsors, Singha Beer. Congratulating Paradorn on his victory in the quarter finals, she pecks him on the cheek.
And the country goes wild. All the gossip columns start speculating: Could she be the one? It seems inconceivable that a foreigner has scooped up the country's most eligible bachelor, the dashing hero in every Thai girl's dreams. But, seeing Natalie won the Miss Universe title in Thailand, she is almost half-Thai, isn't she? The reports flow in: Natalie has moved to live in Thailand, the couple are seen hand-in-hand at a nightclub, they go on holiday to Bali together, she is seen with his parents, etc, etc. The rumour mill goes wild when she is spotted with an enormous diamond ring.
Is it an engagement ring? Has she really won him over? The answer is announced at a press conference at the five-star Sukhothai Hotel in April last year. His proud parents - who reportedly put an end to an earlier romance with Thailand's singing sensation Tata Young - appear with the couple. And to prove just how they value their new daughter in law, they unveil to the hundreds - yes, hundreds - of reporters (and live TV coverage) that the family have given her the Thai name Piangfah and the nickname Fah.But, even more importantly, they lay out their gifts to the former beauty queen, a diamond necklace and earings worth a staggering 13 million baht (about R3,5 million). The cameras go wild....and Thailand's gasps with admiration. This is the real proof that she has done it.
The couple were duly married at Bangkok's most expensive hotel, the Oriental (where else) and they remain way out on top of the country's celebrity A-list. She continues her publicity work for Singha beer and together they have been promoting a new upmarket Bangkok housing development. Says Paradorn: "This feels right. We share the same passions and really understand each other." And who said fairytales don't come true...* Watch the wedding video on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk0jLZkvEuM), with comments in Thai by a Bangkok ladyboy, who is a leading fashion fundi.
