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Lembit - more interesting than PR
- Posted by Ben Davies
- 22 April 2008
The Lib Dem MP is to marry his Cheeky Girl - as announced in Hello
One politician who simply defies the description 'grey' is Lembit Öpik. The ebullient MP for Montgomeryshire first caught the collective media eye when he plummeted to earth.
He broke his back in the 1998 paragliding accident but, fortunately, recovered.
Other than that, Öpik is mainly known for two things - one, paradoxically, is his fascination with asteroids hitting the earth. The other is his unfeasibly eye-catching love life.
Earlier this year former partner and weather presenter Siân Lloyd wrote some rather uncomplimentary things about 'Loverboy Lembit' prompting him to talk of legal action over the kiss-and-tell.
His current attachment to Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia has also guaranteed him a certain notoriety - by Lib Dem standards at least.
Last summer photographs appeared - apparently to his surprise - in Hello! showing him on holiday with the 25-year-old.
According to the magazine, Gabriela and identical twin sister Monica went to Romania to undergo breast enlargement surgery and an operation to remove eye bags, in preparation for a relaunch of their musical career. Gabriela also had treatment for kidney stones.
"Our breasts are bigger than before - we've gone from a 34A to a 34C. We are proud of our breasts like a man would be with a new Ferrari," Gabriela told the magazine in September.
She also said she was still "getting to know" Mr Opik and insisted reports they were planning to marry were wide of the mark.
How things have moved on! Opik proposed in Rome by the Trevi Fountain during a break in the Italian capital.
Irima told the magazine she is now dreaming of a "lavish white wedding in a castle".
"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," she said.
Öpik 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."
Well quite.
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