In early 2024, at a gym in Hanoi’s Xuan La – Xuan Dinh area, she noticed a young man standing with his back turned, chatting with someone. His unusual hairstyle and confident vibe made her curious, and so she walked closer.

“Our eyes met. We just smiled at each other and walked away,” she recalls. “After that, every time we saw each other, we only smiled and said nothing. I was really impressed by his smile and his eyes.”

Prince had come to Vietnam in early 2023 and works as a dance teacher and performer at events.

A week later she asked the gym manager for his contact details and decided to text him first, even though her English was not very good.

Prince took his time to reply to her messages, sometimes even a few days. “But when I like someone, I don’t give up,” she says.

The turning point came when Mai suddenly stopped texting him. That was when he reached out to her. After that they spoke often, almost every day. Even though they both had feelings for each other, neither of them dared to confess. The language barrier and their contrasting work schedules made things harder.

On April 14, 2025, while at a market with her younger sister, she spoke about her unclear relationship. Her sister encouraged her to be honest if she did not want to regret what could have been. That night, Mai confessed her feelings by text message, and Prince said yes. He unexpectedly had that very night off because of a work issue, and invited her out for coffee.

Even though it was late she agreed. They met in Tay Ho, and talked until 2 a.m. “Even after we officially became a couple, we were too shy to hold hands,” she says.

After that they met more often, started going out for food and watching movies and slowly built a serious relationship.

But the language barrier sometimes caused misunderstandings. Prince’s job as a performer also made her feel jealous at times. Once, during an argument, she even asked to break up. “He said that was the moment he realized how much he loved me,” she says.

Unlike his hot-tempered girlfriend, he usually stays quiet, hugging her until she calms down, and then they would talk things through. Over time they learned each other’s languages, understood each other better, and argued less.

Brayan ties Mai’s shoes. Photo courtesy of the couple

Three months later, on Mai’s birthday (July 12), he proposed. She was surprised and emotional. She says she had never imagined marrying a foreigner, especially someone much younger than her. But his sincerity and thoughtfulness made her say yes.

When she introduced him to her family, they were worried. The long distance with Cuba, cultural differences and their age gap made her parents concerned.

But after meeting him several times and seeing that he was polite, hardworking and patient, her mother slowly changed her mind. “Now my mother treats him like a son,” Mai says.

They have not married yet. In fact, she plans to invite his mother to Vietnam in May and have a beach wedding. Although she has never met her future mother-in-law in person, they often text each other.

His mother calls Mai “my beautiful daughter” and tells her son to take good care of her. Mai says she once suggested during a call that her mother-in-law should come and live in Vietnam, and both began to cry.

The couple’s wedding photo. Photo courtesy of the couple

Looking back Mai says her old “ideal type” of man was someone over 1.7 meters tall, calm, caring, and fair-skinned, and Prince is a match in every other aspect except skin color. “He has dark skin, but the most beautiful eyes,” she says with a smile.

He often calls her “mi loca,” meaning “my crazy girl” in Spanish. “He says he loves me because I’m ‘loca’,” she laughs.

At first she worried about their age gap and what other people might think before realizing that what truly mattered was not a checklist of standards, but real feelings and how two people treat each other every day.

For her, the decision to marry was not impulsive but came from knowing she had found someone steady, loving and worth holding on to.