Beauty queen Vu Hoang Diep and her boyfriend Huynh Van Xuan make a beautiful love story like a fairy tale

From a poor girl selling noodles in a village to a beauty queen who meets her prince charming, Vu Hoang Diep’s life couldn’t have been more like a fairy tale.

“My family’s biggest dream was to eat two meals a day,” says Nhi, who has raised three daughters in Gia Kiem Commune, Thong Nhat District.

Through the hardships, Nhi always told her children to lead honest lives, teaching them that kind-heartedness would be the best way to earn respect.

Though she always hoped her children would escape poverty, never in her wildest dreams did Nhi expect to watch her daughter Vu Hoang Diep win an international beauty contest.

Proud family

Twenty-two-year-old Diep, Nhi’s middle daughter, was crowned Miss International Beauty 2009 in China early last month.

It was a far cry from her beginnings waking up before dawn to help her mother set up the family’s noodle stand.

As a child, Diep would ride her bike to and from the market every morning to buy ingredients for the noodle soup.

Diep says that despite the poverty, her family’s warm hearts always kept her happy and inspired. She says her father, a butcher, was particularly supportive.

“He always treats me with kindness and consideration.”

When Diep first expressed interest in modeling four years ago, it was her father who took her on the back of an old motorbike in the rain from Dong Nai to Ho Chi Minh City for a tryout at Professional Look modeling agency, one of the top agencies in Vietnam.

In love with a biker boy

Since winning the competition in China, photos of Diep and her boyfriend, Huynh Van Xuan, have splashed across newspapers and magazines nationwide.

Xuan is a motorbike collector and director of the HCMC-based Thanh Cong S.G. Trading Service Company.

“I’m really proud of my boyfriend,” Diep says, describing him as a man of “extraordinary energy.”

His parents broke up when he was two years old and at the age of 15, he became a dock worker.

“He amazingly saved enough to buy a home in HCMC when he was just 21,” says Diep.

She can’t help blushing when she talks about him.

“He’s really awesome and talented.”

Damsel in distress

The couple first met each other when Diep modeled in an advertisement for the movie “Ghost Rider.” She and several models were driven around HCMC sitting on saddles atop flashy motorbikes.

The driver of her bike touched her thigh in a sexual way and then refused to apologize.

His rudeness caused Diep to burst into tears, catching the attention of Xuan, whose company had rented out the motorbikes.

It was love at first sight.

“It was really fate,” says Xuan. “I loved Diep from the moment I saw her there crying.”

Xuan spoke with the driver who then apologized. He then comforted Diep and she stopped crying. In no time, they were dating.

“I knew then and there she was a good girl… and even if she did not win the beauty contest, she would still be my queen.”

‘Til death do they part?’

Asked when the couple would get married, Diep says she’d like to fulfill her dreams of becoming a teacher or a businesswoman before marriage. She also says the couple is having fun focusing on their social lives for the moment.

Xuan has told reporters that when the two do get married, everyone will know.

He plans to sweep the bride off her feet in a helicopter.

Reported by Thuy Nguyen