The Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik is to marry his Cheeky Girl after proposing in Rome, the couple has announced.

Mr Opik, 43, proposed to Gabriela Irimia beside the Trevi Fountain last week, according to an interview with Hello! magazine. The singer said yes, and the Montgomeryshire MP and his Transylvanian fiancee plan to tie the knot next year or the year after, they said.

Mr Opik met his future bride in 2006 when the pair were both contestants on Five’s All Star Talent Show. He was engaged to ITV weather presenter Sian Lloyd but their relationship broke down in late 2006.

Ms Irimia, 25, is one half of the novelty pop act The Cheeky Girls who hit the charts in 2004 with The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum). She is now sporting a Tiffany white platinum diamond engagement ring, bought by Mr Opik from Selfridges, and is dreaming of a “lavish white wedding in a castle”, according to Hello!

She arrived in Britain in 2002 from her native Romania with her twin sister and fellow Cheeky Girl, Monica.

Speaking of the moment Mr Opik popped the question, Ms Irimia told the magazine: “We’d gone to the Trevi Fountain that afternoon and each made a wish we kept a secret. After a romantic dinner in the evening, Lembit got a taxi to take us back to the fountain, saying he wanted me to see it lit up. There he started talking about our future together, took a gorgeous little box from his pocket, got down on one knee and made his proposal.

“When I said ’yes’ he started to cry. Tears of joy poured out of his eyes. I couldn’t cry, I was so happy that I just kept smiling and laughing.”

Mr Opik added: “We were euphoric afterwards, walking around the city and then sipping champagne and chatting away in our hotel suite until the early hours. I couldn’t ask for things to go better than they did.”

After their split, Ms Lloyd, 49, wrote critically of Mr Opik’s lifestyle at Westminster. He has said that he is considering legal action over a recent book by the weather forecaster. Ms Lloyd married Jonathan Ashman, a millionaire businessman, late last year.

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