They may be in love today, but Melinda Messenger’s first meeting with Dr Raj Joshi was less than romantic and entailed “foot rot.”
The couple announced their engagement in August, sharing some lovely photos from their vacation to New Zealand, where Raj proposed.
Melinda, 52, was originally assumed to have met her partner on a charity walk in Nepal, but she has stated in a recent interview that this is not the case.
The adventure-loving couple really grew close while shooting Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins together.
The former glamour model was rushed to the medic tent after undergoing difficult difficulties on the Channel 4 show.
It was here that she first saw the 47-year-old doctor, who was drenched in’sweat, blood, tears, and pee.’
‘So when I came out, I was crying, sweat, blood tears, and wee, I am not kidding you, in this old sports bra and cycling shorts covered in bruises and yeah, foot rot,’ she told The Sun.
The producer asked if she would like to visit the medic and they decided it would be best for Melinda to ‘pop in and just have a quick chat’.
She added: ‘We just carried on chatting after that and that was it! So the show changed my life in more ways than one, and I’m truly thankful for that.’
Dr Raj is an expedition leader who has worked on BBC documentaries including David Beckham: Into the Unknown and Kilimanjaro: The Big Red Nose Climb.
Melinda shot SAS: Who Dares Wins in the Vietnamese jungle in September, and the new season premieres on Tuesday.
Gareth Gates, Michelle Heaton, and Matt Hancock, who was seen shirtless dancing with his cast colleagues, join the model.
The video attracted flak for being ‘distasteful’ which Gates later justified stating it was a ‘really harmless thing’.
Watch Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins on Channel 4 from September 26.
