Xu said he’d been planning the event for two months, and Chin’s recent holiday in Vancouver gave him enough time and space to focus on it without arousing any of her suspicions.

China-born Star Search 2010 winner Xu, 33, and Star Search 2003 female champion Chin, 37, have been dating since 2015, and were frequently deflecting questions from the media on when they were going to get hitched.

But in fact, Xu had been ready to propose for the last four or five years.

“The ring was ready many years ago,” he said. “At one Star Awards ceremony – I can’t remember which year – I told the media that I had already bought a ring.”

“I told him not to show it to me,” Chin said with a laugh.

Xu had asked David Gan, hairstylist to the celebs, to help him design and custom-make an engagement ring featuring a sapphire, because he’d had a vision of the gemstone and “she is like a precious gem in my life”. The stone is ringed with smaller diamonds, because “to propose without diamonds feels kind of insincere”, he chuckled.