 Fernandez was born on 11 August 1985 , in <unk> , Bahrain , and was raised in a multi @-@ ethnic family . Her father , <unk> , is Sri Lankan , and her mother , Kim , is of Malaysian descent . Her grandfather , on her mother 's side of the family , is Canadian and her great grandparents were from <unk> , India . Her father , who was a musician in Sri Lanka , moved to Bahrain in the 1980s to escape civil unrest between the <unk> and <unk> and subsequently met her mother who was an air hostess . She is the youngest of four children with one elder sister and two elder brothers . She hosted television shows in Bahrain at the age of fourteen . After receiving her early education in Bahrain , she pursued a degree in mass communication from the University of Sydney in Australia . After graduating she worked as a television reporter in Sri Lanka . She also attended the <unk> school of languages , where she learnt Spanish and improved her French and Arabic . 
