Without a doubt, the love story of Tunku Harunnarasheed Putra and Che Puan Amelia Thripura Henderson is a captivating one.

Boy meets girl. Boy and girl become best friends. Boy proposes, girl accepts. They are married in a beautiful akad nikah ceremony together with their loved ones in attendance, witnessing their union.

As if this is not ‘fairy tale’ enough, read on.

Tunku Harun is the son of the late Dato’ Seri Utama Tan Sri Tunku Annuar Sultan Badlishah and his wife Dato’ Seri Tok Puan Noor Suzanna Abdullah from the Kedah royal family. The nephew of our current King is also a project advisor to a property development company. Equally impressive, Che Puan Amelia is a public figure thanks to her successful career as an actress, TV host and model, the most recent being the lead in the TV3 series, Keluarga Pontimau. Put these two together and you have the makings of a quintessential influential couple.

They first met when Che Puan Amelia was hosting Tunku Harun’s parents’ anniversary dinner.

“I was mesmerised when I first saw her onstage. She was wearing this beautiful gold dress. In life, you have only one chance, so you have to seize the moment. When my father asked if I would like to be introduced to her, I said yes and made my move,” he says over  coffee during our interview.

In turn, she recalls naturally gravitating towards Tunku Harun because he was the only other person close to her age that night. “Both his parents introduced us. Harun was shy at first. While guests were doing the poco-poco dance, we sat down together because everyone else was significantly older. We ended up chatting the entire night,” she reveals candidly.

Having entered into each other’s social orbits that night, they struck up a close friendship. Despite their busy lives, they always made time to meet and hang out. The romantic progression of their relationship was straightforward.

“We actually did not have one of those awkward conversations where we were figuring out if we were a couple. It soon became apparent that we are together in every sense of the word,” admits Tunku Harun with a warm smile.

“With Harun, I knew that even if I embarrass myself in the worst possible way, he will still have my back. I will do the same for him in a heartbeat,” confesses Che Puan Amelia. “Neither of us feel the need to break things down. We have fun and we respect each other. We are there for each other through the good and bad times.”

Tunku Harun and Che Puan Amelia also share the same core values—a zeal for travel and good food as well as a family-first philosophy in life. They both possess inner strength and grit to push themselves to be better in their careers.

To read the rest of this feature, purchase the digital copy of the magazine here. For exclusive behind the scenes photos from this shoot, click here.

Photography: Kim Mun from Hopscotch Photography; Styling: Andrea Wong; Art Direction: Allan Casal