Aysha Mehajer: From Wollongong girl to a Muslim glamour

THOSE who recall Aysha Mehajer from her teen years remember a petite size eight figure and a fierce passion for beauty therapy and transformation.

THOSE who remember Aysha Mehajer from her teen years remember a tiny red head with freckles, a petite size eight figure and a fierce passion for her work — beauty therapy and personal transformation.

They recall the wife of Auburn’s controversial Deputy Mayor Salim Mehajer having an entirely different name — April Amelia Learmonth — as she grew up in the suburbs of Wollongong.

Back then the south coast teen, who signed up to a one-year beauty therapy course at the Illawarra College of Beauty Therapy at the age of 16, was less the traffic stopper she is now — a woman for whom property developer Mehajer has risked his position as a councillor and prompted the Baird government to demand a full report into the closure of a Lidcombe street for the couple’s extraordinary $50 million wedding motorcade at the weekend.

Aysha Mehajer’s transformation.

Aysha has come a long way since she was a freckle faced girl from the Gong named April.

Tracey Rovere, former principal of the Illawarra College of Beauty Therapy, who trained “April”, said she could not believe the transformation since the young woman graduated.

“I don’t recognise her but I think mostly anyone who knew her back then wouldn’t recognise her now. She was this tiny little thing with a tiny little personality. It was probably 2004 or 2005 when she graduated.

“She had just come out of high school the year before. Her hair was straight and red and then, for graduation night, she surprised us all by going and getting this amazing spray tan that concealed her freckles and had her hair lightened to strawberry blonde. She had this total Cinderella moment,” said Ms Rovere.

Salim Mehajer and Aysha when she was a blonde April in 2011. Source: Supplied

An old Facebook shot of Aysha when she was April.

Announcing their love to the world. Picture: Facebook

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It would not be Ms Learmonth’s last “Cinderella moment”.

In May, calling herself Aysha Mehajer, though still unmarried, she was proclaimed Miss Personality Miss Lebanon Australia — a title that may have surprised her parents.

Aysha with her wedding dress designer Natalie Georgys at the wedding.

Her father was proud to walk Aysha down the aisle for her Muslim wedding ceremony over the weekend.

Her father John Learmonth, a fair-haired Urunga newsagent, was not inclined to say when The Daily Telegraph spoke to him yesterday but confirmed with trembling voice he walked her down the aisle for her Muslim ceremony.

“(Salim) is more than any father could ask for — he loves her and looks after her, what more could I ask.” She is believed to have converted to Islam six years ago.

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Salim Mehajer and bride Aysha in Lidcombe on their wedding day / Picture: Supplied

Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer holds a lavish wedding in Lidcombe which involved helicopters, supercars, motorbikes, fighter jets and dancing drummers. Picture: Toby Zerna