Actor Desmond Ng marries longtime partner Kanny Theng, proposed with a watch instead of a ring

As of Friday night (Mar 28), Desmond Ng will be a married man. The actor, 37, will be exchanging vows with his partner of several years in front of family and friends, who will gather for an intimate ballroom dinner.

Ng revealed that he’d been dating host Kanny Theng, who has also dabbled in acting, for “maybe about seven or eight years, or more – I can’t remember!”

Theng, 37, who was last seen on screen in the movie Money No Enough 3, can’t remember either. “We didn’t take note of the date,” she laughed, adding that they’re not sentimental about that kind of thing.

The couple met about 10 years ago at dinner with mutual friends. Was it love at first sight? “Kind of,” they both chimed in unison. Still, it was a while before they actually got together.

“We are very different people,” said Ng, who stars in the currently-airing Emerald Hill. “I’m more laid-back; I think a lot; I’m very logical. She’s more about feelings and moving fast and not thinking about consequences. She wants everything ‘now’. I think we complement each other. She moves me forward; I hold her back a little. That makes me feel like she’s a person I can live with for the rest of my life.”

Although Ng says he didn’t go to great lengths to keep the relationship a secret, “We didn’t go public” either, he acknowledged. “When reporters asked if I had a girlfriend, I always said yes, but never mentioned who she was, because I didn’t know how to explain that to them as she isn’t really in the industry – she mostly does hosting.”

Ng popped the question in January last year while on holiday with friends at Yangmingshan in Taiwan.

“I was thinking, if I want to propose overseas, why not find a place you can’t find in Singapore?” he recounted.

Because “she has a very accurate sixth sense”, he told her it was their group of about 20 friends who wanted to go on a casual holiday.

“I’m not a very romantic person. So, it’s pretty easy for me to surprise her,” he said.

At a scenic spot in the national park, he went down on one knee. But, he didn’t propose with a ring.

“She doesn’t wear rings. So, I proposed with a (Cartier) watch that she’d been telling me she liked for a while,” Ng said. “I thought it would be good to surprise her with something she wants.”

Up until the proposal, one of his friends had been entrusted with picking up the watch and keeping it safe. “So, he was very stressed over the whole trip, because he had to bring it everywhere in a backpack,” Ng chuckled.

Another friend acted as the couple’s photographer, capturing the moment for memory.

Having proposed on screen more times than he can remember, “I thought it would be easy. But the actual feeling is very different,” he laughed. “I was very nervous about whether she would find out. And, my friends are all normal people – they don’t act. They overacted! I was like, ‘No, bro. Don’t do that!’”

The only non-fairytale part of the proposal was that “she was a little pissed off because she didn’t dress up. I did hint to her before we left the hotel, ‘Do you want to wear something different?’ And, in the car up, she was sleeping, so she thought she looked unglamorous.”

Still, the couple’s relationship is characterised by such informality and easy rapport. It has been “not totally peaceful for seven or eight years”, Ng quipped, and “she doesn’t always agree with what I do. But this chemistry moves us forward together”.

Citing fellow actors Nick Teo and wife Hong Ling, he said: “They are a very lovely couple and I think they quite envy us when we tease each other in front of them.”

He added: “We always thought we didn’t have to get married because we are like a married couple, in a way. But we came to the conclusion that maybe marriage will provoke a new kind of chemistry in our relationship.”

The wedding dinner will be “very intimate as we previously didn’t even want to have a wedding dinner”, Ng said, but decided to honour their parents’ wishes.

Fellow musicians from his band Al4ha will play the music, and “If I have the time, maybe I will do a few songs”.

Ng said Theng will likely move into his home, a flat he renovated two years ago “partially” according to “her design”, and that they’d like to have kids at some point. “We’re not young any more, so let’s see how it goes,” he quipped.

One thing he’s working on in a quest to be a top-tier husband is taking better photos of his wife. “She always thinks my photos of her are bad,” he lamented, citing that as the reason he hasn’t put her on his social media grid. “I have gone on Xiaohongshu to try to learn some tips.” That’s an A for effort, at least.