Shona McGarty’s fiancé David Bracken needed police permission to pop the question

Shona McGarty’s fiancé David Bracken had to ask the police for permission to propose to her.

The former ‘EastEnders’ star was happy to say yes to spend the rest of her life with the Blessed frontman, 35, after a romantic day in Hyde Park but the final moment needed permission to go ahead as the secret spot was closing for the day.

In an joint interview with OK! magazine, David said: "The police said, ‘Sorry, we are just closing up the park.

“I said, ‘Would you mind giving me five minutes as I am about to propose to my partner.

“He looked at his watch and said, ‘Of course, and best of luck.”

“So I told Shona to go stand at the waterfall, I put on our favourite song and had a dance with her before getting down on one knee."

Shona - whose final scenes on the BBC One soap aired in May bringing an end to 16 years as Whitney Dean - loved that he popped the question in the Kyoto Garden because of her admiration of the “spirituality” of Japanese culture.

Shona said: “I love Japanese culture and the spirituality of it. He bought a picnic which was really sweet. I was in in my element but I didn’t think he was going to propose at all."

Shona revealed that she met the singer on the video-sharing app TikTok after he slid into her DMs offering to do a duet with her.

She said: “We actually met on TikTok. David is a really amazing guitarist, he’s in a band and it came up on my FYP [For You Page], so I liked a video. And then, I got a message from David on TikTok saying, ‘I’ve seen your singing videos, I’d love to do a duet with you.’ I said, “Oh, yeah, definitely, I think you’re amazing.’ But I was so busy with 'EastEnders' that it took me eight months to message him back.”