It was a bitter-sweet moment for Terri because her 46-year-old mother died the same day she discovered she was pregnant.

''We decided to get married quietly, before God, and it did have [something] to do with the pregnancy. We have both been very happy, just pottering along together the way it was.

''But when I lost my mother and got pregnant I felt like I had no family and that Cecil was the only thing I had in the whole world. We really love each other and I realised, that was it,'' she said.

Terri's mother, who had been living with the couple for the past 15 months, was on a trip to her native Vietnam when she developed complications from diabetes.

Terri said the hospital her mother was taken to was ill-equipped to deal with her condition and she slipped into a coma, dying shortly afterwards with Terri at her side.

Terri also said she was becoming annoyed by references to her husband's reputation as a playboy. ''People can think what they want, but they will see me in five or 10 years, still with him, and they will realise I am here for the long term and not the short term.

''My life has become more quiet and I'm happy.

''My life is now with him and trying to have a healthy baby.

''I am going out of my way to be normal in an abnormal situation. I don't want to go to big parties anymore because I can't be surrounded by smoke and I don't like to drink, so I go to intimate parties with our friends and family, and that's enough.

''I want to be my own person and have my own identity. I'm trying to find my way and am not going to let what's going on around me interfere with my life with Cecil,'' she said.