Mezhgan Hussainy, the beauty who's won Cowell's heart

Her summer wedding to Simon Cowell will be far more than just a lavish affair.

This time it will actually be a joyous occasion — unlike the first time Mezhgan Hussainy said her marriage vows.

For when she was just 19, Hussainy found herself trapped in a loveless arranged marriage to a carpet-seller 13 years her senior who "disgusted" her.

Both her ex sister-in-law Erlene Garcia and friend Eva Hayes say young Hussainy was left so depressed that she would often cry for hours on end.

Garcia, 44, who was married to Hussainy's older brother Wahid, said she was horrified as she watched her walk down the aisle to marry wealthy Ahmad Shah Zahiri in 1988.

Born to maths teachers, Sayed and Mary, Hussainy was living in poverty in a run-down area of Los Angeles when she met Zahiri at a party. Just five years earlier Hussainy and her family had fled the Taliban in Afghanistan.

‘Not in love'

After spotting her at the function, Zahiri is reported to have told friends, "That is the girl I am going to marry," before bombarding her family with gifts — including expensive carpets.

Garcia told the Sunday Mirror: "She was saying, ‘I'm not in love with him, he makes me sick, I have to quit school.' "I told her, ‘You don't have to go ahead with this, you are an American citizen.' But she told me, ‘you are wrong'.

"It was a big wedding in a fancy hotel with hundreds of guests. Throughout the ceremony, I felt sick to my stomach. At the end, Mezhgan and Ahmad Shah sat at a large table and were given huge numbers of fancy gifts, including gold bracelets and rings. She was draped in them. I have never seen a sadder picture in all my life."

After the wedding, Garcia said Zahiri made Hussainy leave school and work for him as a secretary. "She would get so upset," she said. "She would cry for hours and hours."

The marriage ended in the late 1990s after Zahiri allegedly walked out on Hussainy. She moved back in with her parents and found work as a part-time model for an underwear catalogue.

She dated a Chippendale and a TV actor before moving to work on the make-up counter at Bloomingdale's in 2003 and falling for a co-worker, shoe salesman Alejandro Saavedra.

The couple moved in together and she got a job as a make-up artist on American Idol.

Hayes said: "All of a sudden she was mixing with big stars — and it made her very happy.

"She would often talk about all the celebrities she was working with. At first she wasn't sure Simon was her type. Previously she always went for muscular, GQ-model types."

Cowell started dating Hussainy shortly after he ended his six-year relationship with Terri Seymour, 36, in November 2008.

He initially decided he was too busy for a full-time romance, but a year later the relationship took off. Despite being one of the world's most celebrated bachelors — who once dismissed marriage as an "outdated contract" — he has described Hussainy as "the one".

Friends have even said that Cowell, 50, is talking excitedly about starting a family after proposing to her in February.

Speaking on Piers Morgan's Life Stories show, he said: "I thought I had it all. I had girlfriends and I thought, ‘Why get married?'

"Love is something that is quite confusing. You just know when you've found somebody special."

Cowell to host Dali-themed wedding

— IANS

Music mogul Simon Cowell's wedding to fiancée Mezhgan Hussainy will be themed around a painting by Salvador Dali, according to his ex-girlfriend Sinitta.Cowell, who proposed to the make-up artist earlier this year and is yet to confirm a wedding date, is planning to have a lavish bash after the ceremony, complete with angels and melted clocks, emulating Dali's famed The Persistence of Memory painting, reports contactmusic.com. "What Simon wants Simon gets. The theme of the wedding is "miracles do happen" — Simon getting married just goes to prove it! I can't believe the big man is actually doing it, but I am convinced he's going to, even though it's against everything he has ever said," said Sinitta. "It's beautiful, it really is. It will be a pretty surreal do — Salvador Dali-inspired. There'll be angels and all sorts everywhere. It will be amazing," she added.