From The Straits Times    |

shishi nicky.jpgTelevision sweethearts Nicky Wu (left) and Liu Shishi will hold their wedding at the end of the year at the earliest. — PHOTO: WEIBO/WUQILONG

BEIJING – Television sweethearts Nicky Wu and Liu Shishi, who announced their marriage in January this year, will hold their wedding at the end of the year at the earliest.

They are too busy with work now, said his manager.

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily said the couple registered their marriage in Beijing on Tuesday, after he took her back to his native Taiwan to meet his parents and proposed to her.

After receiving their marriage certificates, they flew to Shanghai, where she is shooting a new war drama, The Battle At The Dawn, said the report. He will also produce and star in a TV version of Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain, which begins filming in Hengdian late this month.

For fans of the couple’s 2011 hit Scarlet Heart, the news of the marriage came as a sweet, longed-for ending they did not see onscreen.

Formerly of boyband Little Tigers, Wu got a second wind in his career when he starred in the time-travel romance adapted from an online novel, as the Qing prince who would be the Yongzheng emperor. Liu played the love of his life, a woman from the future. The show ended with Yongzheng losing his love.

Wu, 44, posted a photo of two red marriage certificates and two wedding rings on Weibo on Tuesday, with a message: “Cherish happiness.”

He tagged Liu, 27, who reposted his announcement on Weibo and added: “We are very happy.”

The marriage took his manager Paco Wong by surprise.

He told Apple Daily he had dined with Wu on Monday, but the actor did not breathe a word of his plan to marry his girlfriend.

Former Little Tiger Alec Su set tongues wagging when he wished the pair haoyun – “good pregnancy”, which sounds like “good luck” in Mandarin – on Weibo.

But Wong denied that it was a shotgun marriage. “Absolutely not, as far as I know. I believe they felt it was the right time to get married,” he said.

Talk of a romance between the couple had started since Scarlet Heart, but they denied it then. Wu confirmed their relationship only in 2013, after they starred as lovers in two more dramas, Scarlet Heart 2 and Great Incisive Teacher.

It is the first marriage for Liu and the second for Wu, who divorced Chinese actress Ma Yashu in 2009.

This article was first run in The Straits Times newspaper on January 21, 2014. For similar stories, go to sph.straitstimes.com/premium/singapore. You will not be able to access the Premium section of The Straits Times website unless you are already a subscriber.