THEIR journey to love reads like a romantic comedy: He was a hotshot Australian lawyer happily settled in his hometown of Perth; she was a red hot Malaysian beauty queen on the rebound from a broken heart.

A twist of fate – and a mutual friend – brought Paul Dewar and Andrea Fonseka together at a club in Perth in 2008.

“I had been working particularly hard that day when a close friend of mine dragged me out of the office to the club that we liked to hang out at,” recollects the 39-year-old Dewar. “There was Andrea, who was holidaying in Perth and hanging out with a friend of ours.”

The two clicked instantly – 12 hours after she had broken up with her ex!

“We couldn’t stop talking,” Fonseka says, cuddling up to Dewar during an exclusive interview at One World Hotel in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, recently.

“We felt really comfortable around each other. It’s funny how things happen and you don’t really think about it at the time. We spent a short weekend getting to know each other and I remember giving him my e-mail address when he drove me to the airport. Well, I got off the plane in Singapore less than six hours later and there was an e-mail from him.”

Well, that’s Dewar – gentle, sensitive and intuitive, qualities that spoke to the vulnerable core beneath Fonseka’s wilful, confident exterior.

“Yes, she needs to work on her ‘boss-zila’ attitude,” he teases. “If she goes, like, ‘I need to talk to you right now,’ I’ll go ‘I’ll talk to you when I’m ready.’”

Truly, they are each other’s yin and yang. “I suppose I’ve earned extra points by giving Andrea my biker jacket when it was 3°C out there in Perth and I was shivering as well,” he offers.

But wait; Cupid did not take aim until a few months after their encounter in Australia?

“No, it wasn’t love at first sight,” Fonseka, 26, says. “I only realised that I wanted to see more of Paul after I got back to Singapore for my final semester in law school.”

Funnily enough, Dewar had no idea how famous his Malaysian girlfriend was – until he visited her for the first time in Singapore, where Fonseka had built a steady career as a TV personality.

“I followed her to an event and all of a sudden, the flashbulbs started exploding when she walked in,” he says with an Aussie twang.

Dewar was more amused than shocked by the experience.

“What I love most about Paul is that he didn’t treat me any differently after he knew who I was,” Fonseka says earnestly. “To him, I’m just the girl that he loves who happens to be in a more glamorous profession than his.”

Their long-distance courtship began via Skype and three months later, he was in her parents’ living room in Kuala Lumpur, asking for her hand in marriage.

“I was nervous about meeting her parents,” Dewar confesses. “But they were gracious to me. Her mum (former beauty queen Datin Josephine Fonseka) laid down the law. Basically, we’ve agreed to a Catholic church wedding and a Chinese wedding in honour of the Fonsekas’ Chinese roots.”

It has also been agreed upon that the cute couple would divide their time equally between KL, Perth and Singapore after their marriage. And babies would come in five years.

“My parents love him,” Fonseka, the yougest of four girls, chips in. “He’s just so accommodating and supportive. I left him with them and went shopping on the day he asked for their permission to marry me. By the time I got back, it was like they had adopted him or something.”

Even though the lovebirds registered their marriage in Perth early this year, Fonseka is only considered to be legally married on Friday when her dad gives her away at the altar at Assumption Church, Petaling Jaya.

“I’m a traditional Catholic girl,” admits the 2004 Miss Universe Malaysia. “I believe in the whole white-wedding-in-church deal – right down to parental approval.”

Even Dewar’s proposal of marriage was traditional. Get this: he went down on his knees three times and gave Fonseka his grandmother’s 100-year-old ring for their engagement.

“He had proposed before he met my parents,” reveals Fonseka. “After he got their approval, he proposed once again on a romantic trishaw ride in Singapore (which made her cry). It made me realise how he’s been there for me and that’s love, right? Unmitigated support, someone who cares enough for you to let you be, well, you.”

Finally, the deal was sealed when they went to Paris together and climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

“He remembered that I’d said once how romantic it would be,” she glows. “We got to the top and he asked me for the engagement ring back and I was all like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Then he got down on one knee, and asked me for my hand in marriage.”

Awww ...