It was just recently discovered that Diff'rent Strokes' actor, Gary Coleman, 40, secretly married his girlfriend, Shannon Price, 22, last year in a private Nevada ceremony. The couple, separated by almost 20 years in age and 1 ½ feet in height, high-tailed it to Valley of Fire State Park on Price's birthday and exchanged vows on a secluded hilltop.

“Nobody was around but the minister, preacher, the videographers, the photographer, and the helicopter pilot. That was all that was there. There was nobody else,” Coleman recounts. The manner in which the topic of marriage was first mentioned was somewhat unorthodox – it seems that Price was the one to take initiative and ask a shocked Coleman to spend the rest of his life with her. Not to be outdone, he whisked her away for surprise nuptials a few weeks later. “In the middle of the night, I'm wondering: 'Gee, what made me get married to this woman?' And I just say love.”

Coleman, famed for his role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom, Diff'rent Strokes, first met Price during the filming of Church Ball in Utah. The pair has been inseparable ever since.

So what was the reasoning for keeping the marriage a secret? Price explains that they concealed their nuptials primarily because she wanted the world to first see her as an individual. “I just want my own identity as well because I don't want to be known as Gary Coleman's wife.” Apparently, Price has high aspirations to make it as a Hollywood actress and doesn't want her connection with Coleman to be the determining factor in her success.

While this is understandable to a certain extent, people can't help but wonder if there are other reasons for keeping a marriage with a man half her size under wraps. In fact, just a month ago, Coleman revealed to US Weekly that sex isn't a part of their marriage, and he is still a virgin. “It'll happen when it'll happen and it'll happen for all the right reasons.”

When interviewed, the couple minimized the age and height difference to a moot point. “He was ten feet tall to me because he was sweet and I really liked his personality,” Price says of her affection for Coleman. She went on to express, “I don't have issues with age, I have issues with intelligence.” While they are both adamant about the irrelevance of their physical deviation, the fact that they have yet to consummate their marriage speaks louder than their words ever could. Coleman even admitted that they have a very volatile relationship: “We may go a week and not speak to each other.”

Despite all of these deep underlying problems, Coleman still declares that Price was the first woman with whom he had ever had an intimate connection. “I never got the opportunity to be romantic or feel romantic with anyone before Shannon. I wasn't saving myself – she just happened to be the one.” Ah, ain't true love grand?