In the blink of an eye, Hongkong star Gigi Leung, 43, has been married for eight years. Like Lin Chiling’s surprise marriage to Japanese pop star Akira, Gigi getting hitched to Sergio Crespo Gutes, then a food engineer from Spain, also took Asia by storm. After all, they had only known each other for six months before deciding to spend their rest of their lives together.

The details of their whirlwind courtship in 2011 has been kept a secret until recently. Gigi revealed on a variety show that when she first met Sergio while on a solo holiday in Spain, she had lied to him that she was a model. But whenever they were out in public, she would get recognised by fellow tourists, who would ask her for photos without fail. That quickly raised Sergio’s suspicions on Gigi’s true identity, but she quickly covered her tracks by saying she’s a famous supermodel.

According to Gigi, Sergio then told her : “I just want to know the real you, so you don’t have to be worried. I won’t go online to search for news about you or your work until the day you are ready to show them to me.” His words touched Gigi so much, they decided to date for real, meeting once every three weeks, until their wedding six months later. Sergio then left his reportedly high-paying job in Spain to move to Hongkong and in 2015, Gigi gave birth to their beautiful daughter Sofia.

Goes to show that there’s nothing a white lie can’t solve.