Paul McHugh says he and his wife-to-be Bridget Lura ‘just want to be happy’
Paul McHugh with his fiancée Bridget Lura and her son Devin(Image: Supplied)
A Huyton bus driver has called out “narrow minded” people who he says made hurtful comments about his Filipino fiancée. The ECHO reported earlier this week on the romance between Paul McHugh and Bridget Lura, who lives in the south east Asian country.
Paul got chatting to Bridget on Dating Asia, a dating site he joined in August 2025. The pair quickly grew close, with Paul flying out to the Philippines to meet her last September. He went again in December, where he met her family, including her seven-year-old son Devin.
It was then Paul proposed to Bridget, which she accepted. They were planning to get married on a beach in the Philippines this October but he was concerned he’d not be able to save up the £30,000 they would need to cover the wedding, honeymoon and moving costs.
Paul therefore set-up a GoFundMe and shared his story with the ECHO earlier this week. However, he now says he taken the fundraiser down due to a lack of donations and hurtful social media comments about Bridget.
Speaking to the ECHO yesterday, Paul said: ”A friend of mine phoned me up yesterday and asked if I’d seen what people have said about it. Some of the comments were not very nice, shall I say.
“So I thought to myself, some people are narrow minded. It’s not a case where my other half is scamming (me). It’s not one of these situations where she’s just after a Visa to come to the UK.
“This is a proper, normal relationship where two people love each other, want to spend the rest of their lives together, want to be happy etc.
“I’m not saying there aren’t any scammers out there, but wherever you go, there’s going to be those types of people, whichever country you go to.
“I can be rest assured that me and Bridget are happy together. The family loves me to bits. Bridget and I just want to be happy and the rest of the family just want us to be happy.”
Asked how he would describe Bridget, Paul said: “Loving, affectionate. She’s got a good heart. Very loving. She can’t wait for me to be there again.”
But after the last few days of negative attention, Paul says he has come to the reluctant conclusion that he won’t be able to get the money together for a wedding this year.
The couple have now decided it will take place next year. Paul has set-up a new GoFundMe to pay for a trip to the Philippines in September to mark his birthday instead.
He said: “I feel a bit gutted because my fiancée and myself were hoping to get married this year. We spoke this morning and decided to stop any backlash, we (won’t) go ahead with getting married.
“I’ll save the money myself. We’ll get married next year, even though it wasn’t part of our plan. I feel a bit more relieved.
“I’ve changed my GoFundMe now to try and raise £12,000 (for the trip) before the end of August, just so I can spend my birthday over there with my other half, my little step-son, my little brother-in-law, mother-in-law and the rest of the family, and go to several little islands around around the Philippines.
“I’m hoping that people will donate to that because, even though I start my new job next month with Stagecoach, it still doesn’t give me very long to sort the money. I still have to pay my own bills and I pay the bills over there.”
Paul hopes people who made the hurtful comments about Bridget will reflect on their actions. He said: “I just wish people who don’t know or don’t know the situation (would) stop the negative vibes and saying nasty things, when they don’t know Bridget and myself. We are just two ordinary people who fell in love and want to be happy together. I say, there’s nothing wrong with that.
“Everyone deserves to have a little bit of help in their life, because I can guarantee the people who have given the bad vibes towards the original story (have) been in a situation where they’ve needed help at some stage in their life.
“I just wish people would think of what that they’re saying before actually putting it online – because if it was the other way around, how would they like it?”
You can find out more about the new fundraiser here.
