The love story behind Clive Palmer

Wanna be Prime Minister and Billionaire Clive Palmer takes a Miley Cyrus inspired twerking lesson from Kyle. Courtesy 2day FM

Clive Palmer with his pregnant wife Anna on polling day. Picture: Megan Slade. Source: News Limited

HE played "dad" at her first wedding and they live in a fading Queensland golf resort where visitor numbers are down despite the addition of giant mechanised dinosaurs. But behind their wacky exterior, Mr and Mrs Clive Palmer share a touching love story.

Anna Palmer cuts a quietly trim figure beside her blustering political aspirant husband, usually in the sidelines but always close at hand. And despite their wildly different personalities and a 20 year age gap, the relationship between the law degree holding chartered accountant and larger than life Palmer is rock-solid.

Clive Palmer with pregnant wife Anna. Picture: Megan Slade. Source: News Limited

"I was surprised to see how much he depends on her presence," says one business associate who spent several days with the couple last year.

"It was to the point where he wasn't willing to leave her side at all during our dealings. His security guards were banished from the room at one point but he was saying 'where's my wife, where's my wife?'.

"He is very solicitous towards her and their daughter. I would say they appear to be very much in love."

Married for five years, and currently pregnant with the couple's second child, Mrs Palmer spoke last year about their unlikely love story.

Clive Palmer and wife Anna Palmer. Source: News Limited

Mrs Palmer moved to Australia 21 years ago at the age of 18 to marry a young Australian, Andrew Topalov, with whom she had fallen in love as he travelled through her native Bulgaria.

Mr Topalov, who was an aide to then Queensland property developer Clive Palmer, asked his boss to act as father of the bride because visa complications with her parents meant young Anna had nobody to give her away.

"It sounds terrible now, but it made sense," she told Australian Story.

"I met Clive pretty shortly after coming to Australia, because Andrew had talked to him about participating in our wedding.

"We came to visit Clive and his family and I thought it was very nice of them to basically fill in the shoes of my family at our wedding."

Clive Palmer with his wife Anna prepare to fly from his private jet while campaigning in Queensland. Picture: Hamish Cairns Source: Supplied

The pair came together again more than a decade later, after each lost their partners around the same time in 2006 to cancer. Susan Palmer, the mother of Mr Palmer's two children Michael and Emily, died after a short illness, while Anna nursed her husband Andrew through a long battle with melanoma.

"He contacted me first through Andrew's brother to say that if there's anything I needed," she said.

"He became more of a friend (in) the following months and he's quite a busy person, and so was I with all the activities I was trying to get launched into to keep busy, so it took a long time for us to really realise we had other feelings."

Clive and Anna Palmer with daughter Mary...ready for his Titanic plans. Source: Supplied

Mrs Palmer was emotional as she recalled the difficult time after losing her first husband, and her conflicted feelings for Mr Palmer.

"Well, getting married with Clive for me personally . . . was not an easy decision, because I was still feeling very married. I was wearing my wedding ring for a long time and I think he felt the same way. So getting married as such was not a priority . . . getting remarried I should say was not a priority,'' she said.

Soon afterwards came daughter Mary.

Clive Palmer vents his frustration after he was told PM Kevin Rudd's plane would be refuelled before his, saying it will 'undermine democracy in Australia'.

"I really wanted to have a baby very quickly and Clive also very much wanted to have a bigger family, so um, we had Mary very quickly I should say. We were very fortunate, very lucky people to have a beautiful, healthy baby and hopefully, more to follow," she said.

Mr Palmer is currently on course to take the Federal seat of Fairfax on Queensland's Sunshine Coast after pulling slightly ahead of Liberal National incumbent Ted O'Brien in counting from last weekend's election.

Clive Palmer's dinosaur on the Palmer Coolum Resort. Picture: Megan Slade Source: News Limited

His political aspirations have drawn plenty of unwelcome scrutiny, and Mr Palmer would not respond to News Corp's repeated requests for an interview.

Among the revelations that have upset the self-proclaimed billionaire are that his claim of being a professor is exaggerated (he is an honorary adjunct professor) and that he has repeatedly overstated his personal wealth and business earnings.

But those close to him say Mr Palmer's public persona differs greatly from how he is in private.

"He is quite charming, even a little humble," said the former business associate.

"After a couple of days I felt the buffoonery, that kind of crazy Clive, is an act put on because he likes to surprise people."

Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer spins a game wheel and has a funny rant about Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott while he waits to do a breakfast radio interview in Melbourne.

Mrs Palmer agrees that very few people know the truth about her husband.

"Walking around the streets with Clive, it's very evident to me that everybody thinks that they know him and are very close to him, because even with myself when you see someone on TV a lot you do get to feel as if you know them," she said.

"Having said that, I don't think people really see him as a normal human being or as a man and um, what I would like for people to I suppose understand … is that he is just a person who happened to be very successful in the field that he's chosen to be in.

"I think pretty much what people see is what they get. The only thing they don't see I suppose is all the hard work that he puts behind it."

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