SINGAPORE - Who says long-distance relationships don't last?

Andrea Fonseka's love life in recent years has been nothing short of wonderful, she said.

The 28-year-old Malaysian celebrity and her Australian lawyer husband Paul Dewar, 41, have lived apart since their wedding three years ago.

Fonseka is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while he calls Perth home.

In a candid interview with The New Paper, the Miss Universe Malaysia 2004 and one of the briefcase beauties on 2007 Channel 5 game show Deal Or No Deal, shared some details about her long-distance marriage.

While Fonseka acknowledged that being apart from her husband was "tough in the beginning", she got used to it after a while.

She said: "I'm so glad I found someone special. Should I complain (about the long-distance marriage) when there are people who haven't found that special someone?"

"Because of his presence, I'm now confident of who I am and what I want," she added.

The beauty stressed that she has never wondered if he will cheat on her as she has complete trust in him.

"Plus, I'll know (if he did), since I have friends in Perth. If a man wants to cheat, he can sleep beside you every night and still cheat on you."

Fonseka, who is with local talent management company Beam Artistes, was in town as a special guest at the launch of Goldheart's Mode Gold collection Wednesday night.

The couple are living apart because Mr Dewar is an intellectual property lawyer in Perth and his expertise is not transferrable to Malaysia.

Fonseka is the national director of the Miss Universe Malaysia Organisation (Mumo) and she did not want to stop her work when she got married.

She also wanted to be with her 74-year-old father in Malaysia. He went through a triple angioplasty (a procedure to widen narrowed or obstructed arteries) in 2009.

The couple's story reads like something from a movie.

They met by chance at a Perth club through mutual friends in May 2008. He nearly didn't go out that night because he was tired from work.

She had flown in to visit her sister, who lives in the Western Australian capital. She was also nursing a broken heart, having broken up with her boyfriend just 12 hours earlier.

A year later, in October, Fonseka and Mr Dewar solemnised their union in front of family and close friends at Mr Dewar's alma mater, the University of Western Australia.

Since then, they have been SMSing each other every day, and Fonseka said it's the first and last thing she does.

Every three or four weeks, they take turns to fly over to see each other for about four days. She also takes one week off work every three months to be with him.

When she feels lonely, she talks to her parents or chats with her husband using the iPhone video call app FaceTime.

So how does she keep the love going?

"In the beginning of a romance, you want to make your partner happy because it makes you happy. Never stop that."

It didn't cross her mind to put their marriage on hold until they could live together.

"I knew he was the man I wanted to marry. Why should I wait? A long-distance relationship is difficult, but it's a commitment to each other," she said.

"If I had waited and my father passes away, I'll never be able to forgive myself that he didn't get to give me away in church."

But Fonseka is now ready to start her new life with her husband in Perth.

She will leave Mumo at the end of the year and go to Perth next January. She intends to come here once a month to work.

The couple hope to relocate to Singapore in the future and raise a family here.

Business plans

She also wants to start a business, but said she cannot reveal the nature of it yet.

She added: "I really miss Singapore and the overall efficiency here. Everything runs well here and everyone tries their best. It's not that Malaysia isn't efficient, it's just that Singapore is on a whole different level."

"I'm very much looking forward to spending more time with my husband.

"It was a difficult decision. I've invested my life with the Miss Universe Malaysia Organisation for three years. My father also told me I cannot stay in Malaysia for him and that I should be with my husband."

Fonseka, who has just finished filming reality show The Next Miss Universe Malaysia, where she was the main judge, told us she gets job satisfaction from grooming the beauty queens.

She has provided career advice and helped open doors for the winners and finalists of Miss Universe Malaysia.

She was also instrumental in securing full scholarships for the Top 4 finalists of the Miss Universe Malaysia 2013 pageant to pursue their studies at the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in Malaysia.

Fonseka told us she used to have expectations for Miss Universe Malaysia to receive a placing in the pageant finals. But not any more.

"Last year's Miss Universe Malaysia Deborah Henry was touted internationally (before the finals) as the one to win, but she wasn't even placed in the Top 16," she said.

"I didn't know what went wrong. I was devastated and broke down in tears. I wondered if it was my fault and if I had said something wrong to the Miss Universe committee.

"After that, I made sure I don't get disappointed any more and the way to do that is not to have expectations.

"Now, I aim to improve the lives of the women. It doesn't matter how well they do in the pageant finals, only that they go fully prepared."

One thing she always teaches her charges is to be confident and not arrogant.

"Confidence is knowing you will make mistakes and not beat yourself up over it. Arrogance is thinking you won't ever make mistakes," she elaborated.

Fonseka admitted she was arrogant when she worked here as a model-TV host in 2007.

"I was surrounded by people who told me I was the best in the world. For example, I got really upset when people who interviewed me didn't write me in the best light. I voiced my unhappiness to everyone," she said.

"When I went back to Malaysia to be with my father in 2009, I reflected for a year and it put (things) back in perspective before the arrogance exploded in my face.

"My husband is an incredible and positive force in my life. He taught me that I should surround myself with good people and things."

Fonseka will accompany Miss Universe Malaysia Kimberley Leggett to the finals in Las Vegas on Dec 19.

Click here for photos.

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