SINGAPORE - Malaysian actress Sora Ma has credited local star Fann Wong for advice which eventually led her to decide to get married.

On Monday (June 7), Ma shocked her fans when she disclosed her nuptial plans.

The 37-year-old posted on social media a photo of a ring with a large bouquet of roses and a video of the proposal.

She said she met her future husband on April 29, 2012, and they began dating in March 2013.

Ma told local media that her fiance is a Singaporean businessman in his 40s and seven or eight years older than her.

She met him through a friend at the Star Awards in 2012 and he proposed to her in 2018, though she had not made this public until now.

She stated that she is not pregnant and that the couple plan to register their marriage later this year.

In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao on Wednesday, Ma revealed that she once had a big quarrel with her fiance after the proposal and almost ran away from home.

Fann, 50, who is married to actor Christopher Lee, 49, then shared with Ma tips on how to get along with someone of the zodiac sign Leo. Both Lee and Ma's fiance are Leos, while Fann and Ma are Aquariuses.

"My heart settled down after the chat and I decided to take the next step," Ma said.

Earlier in her relationship, she also approached her good friends - celebrity couple Hong Huifang and Zheng Geping as well as former actor Vincent Ng - to evaluate her boyfriend.

"I was still not sure at that time if he was suitable for me, so I asked them to be my appraisers due to their vast experience in life," Ma said. "All of them felt that he was good."

Ma said she could not recall many details of the proposal, but he had proposed to her with a gold ring carved with words from the movie series The Lord Of The Rings (2001 to 2003) and her English name.

The actress is a big fan of the film trilogy - based on the books of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien - and rewatches it at least once a year.

Ma made headlines in April after she told Shin Min Daily News that she had been bullied by a veteran actor, whom she declined to identify, while filming the long-running television series 118 II (2016 to 2017).

She will appear in Mediacorp's upcoming English-language drama series This Land Is Mine, which also stars Rebecca Lim and Pierre Png.