In what seems like an epitome of the Stockholm syndrome, the notorious Miss Bulgaria 2009 Antoniya Petrova has married her kidnapper – and boyfriend – Russian businessman Alexander Beredin.

Petrova, who has been controversial since winning the Miss Bulgaria title in 2009 through a SMS Text vote – with critics still claiming she won thanks to Beredin – is said to have married the Russian businessman during a trip to Moscow, the Hello Bulgaria magazine reported.

The report says the news is a big surprise since she has already turned him down once, and she was believed to have left him, after in July 2011 Beredin kidnapped her from a restaurant in Sofia's Boyana quarter, and stuffed her into the trunk of his jeep, where the police found her shortly after that, but in downtown Sofia.

Beredin was arrested over the kidnapping but was subsequently released. Many tend to believe the kidnapping was fake, and was designed to boost the public imagine of the controversial ex Miss Bulgaria.