She had already made a name for herself as a highly sought-after model in the early 1990s. Then, Singapore director Eric Khoo turned her into an actress by casting her in his film 12 Storeys.
For all her star credentials, however, Ms Lum May Yee, 40, did not make a good first impression on her future husband, Mr Steven Lam, when they met at a friend's house party in 2000.
"We were introduced through mutual friends and went out partying together," recalls Mr Lam, director of home-grown jeweller, The Canary Diamond Company. "But I thought she was stuck up. Very pretty but also really stuck up."
With mock horror, Ms Lum tries to defend her younger self: "I was not stuck up, please. Aloof, maybe, but not stuck up.
"Besides, I don't like all these pretences and niceties. I don't see why I have to smile and talk to everybody that I see."
Plus, she adds, Mr Lam is three years younger than her. She was 27 and he was 24 when they met.
"To be honest, I thought he was really cute but too young. He looked like a boy and I like guys who are a bit more mature."
In 2003, however, sparks began to fly.
When both were at the same party at Zouk one night, she started to notice Mr Lam.
"I'm not sure what happened in those three years but, suddenly, I felt he looked different - more handsome and more mature," she recalls.
That fateful night, Mr Lam also plucked up the courage to ask Ms Lum, who had remained his party pal and drinking buddy, out on a date.
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