HOLLYOAKS star Rishi Nair has revealed that he’s engaged to his long-term girlfriend.
The actor, who has played Sami Maalik from 2017 to 2021, popped the question during a romantic proposal to girlfriend Natalie.
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Rishi, 33, threw a huge engagement party with friends and former co-stars including Harvey Virdi and Haiesha Mistry.
The happy couple looked over the moon as they shared a sweet kiss while cutting a three-tiered cream frosted cake.
The guests partied the night away, snacking on platters of food and booze.
Haiesha, who played Rishi’s on-screen sister Yasmine Maalik before her exit earlier this year, shared a photo of the cake.
She wrote: “A weekend celebrating love. Congratulations to you both.”
Rishi played the much-loved Hollyoaks character four years.
In 2022, he bagged his first TV role since quitting the show.
The Hollyoaks star quit last year after his character Sami confronted rapist Ali Shahzad (Raji James).
He now stars alongside Hollywood star Jaime Winstone in ITV comedy Countabdulla, appearing as Majid in five episodes in 2023.
At the time he shared news to his fans that he has moved on.
Other actor’s who appeared in the show include The Bay’s Arian Nik and Star Wars and Homeland actor Akshay Kumar.
Actor Rishi made his debut on the long-running soap Hollyoaks back in 2017.
Speaking about leaving Hollyoaks he told the Daily Mail: “I don’t want to say this is goodbye forever because we never know what the future might hold but I feel like he’s left at a good time. We’ve seen him go full circle.
“He came to the village looking for revenge and was a bit of a villain at the beginning and we’ve kind of seen the real Sami and his soft side has come through.
“He acted as the dad of the family looking out for his younger siblings and they’re growing up now and they’re not kids anymore. He’ll always be there but he doesn’t need to be there every day.”
Rishi’s character has taken centre stage in a number of high-profile plots over the years.
Reflecting on his most memorable storyline, he said there’s one that stands out from the rest:
“My favourite storyline by far was far-right radicalisation, it being the first-time racism was ever covered on a UK soap, and being such an integral part of that storyline made me feel so proud.
“It meant so much to me to cover that on a personal level as well. It was great hearing the stories and the reception it had, with people stopping you on the street, and messages on social media about how happy they were that it was being covered on prime-time TV covered in such a real way,” he said.
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