Shirley reveals: “I admit that the way I handled it was stupid! The reason why Gregory and I could not continue to be together wasn’t because we didn’t love each other anymore….the main cause of the breakup was due to the relationship with his family. Saying that I am a free-loader and such, I truly feel very wronged! In short, I did NOT cheat on Gregory and can absolutely tell you that I am NOT pregnant – both were basically ‘excuses’ that I made up to force Gregory to let go and agree to the breakup.”
From the day that Shirley Yeung announced her breakup with Gregory Lee (on June 28th), she had decided that she would not reveal the true reason behind the breakup. Even with the entire world criticizing her for ‘heartlessly’ dumping Gregory and rumors flying that she had cheated on Gregory with new beau Andy, Shirley still stubbornly held on to her belief that ‘she who is innocent does not need to prove her innocence.’ It wasn’t until she saw the accusations that were starting to multiply day by day get more and more out of hand that she finally decided that she needed to speak up. On Friday, before proceeding with this interview for our magazine, Shirley stated: “Feel free to ask! I will answer all questions you ask! All this time, I was afraid to say anything because I wanted to protect him [Gregory], the reason being that in the past, the reports about him have been mostly negative – I truly didn’t want him to suffer more ridicule from people because of the breakup. But I realize now that instead of accomplishing that, I ended up hurting myself – I never thought that breaking up with my boyfriend would become the ‘talk of the town’ and result in everyone criticizing me.”
Relationship with Gregory’s family was catalyst for breakup
When Shirley made her announcement, she had stated publicly that she and Gregory broke up ‘a few months ago’ -- however on the night of May 17th, she was photographed attending Gregory’s birthday party, plus at the end of last month, she had visited Gregory on the set of <<Boxer King>> and spent the day with him – as a result, her truthfulness was brought into question. In response to this, Shirley recounts in detail how her relationship with Gregory went from ‘deep passion’ to irreconcilable breakup.
“Actually, starting last year, there were already problems in our relationship. I bought a house with my family last year and during February / March of this year, I started packing up my things, then at the end of April, I officially moved out of the home that I had shared with Gregory – the reports of me packing my things and sneaking out at midnight are absolutely false! At the moment that I moved out (in April), Gregory was present and his mother was there as well, yet both of them claimed not to know.” (So many years relationship, what was the reason for the breakup?) “The catalyst for our breakup was primarily due to my relationship with his [Gregory’s] family…at the time, I lived together with Gregory, his mother Shih Ming, and his brother Augustine under the same roof – I had put a lot of effort into trying to live harmoniously with them….but the results were not successful. When you try to have a conversation with them, you don’t get any reaction, they pretty much ignore you…when you try to greet them, they treat you as though you’re dead air…those types of actions are worse than the way they treat a stranger on the street, how is it possible to live harmoniously in this manner?! Also, his family members throw my stuff all around the house – it’s really disrespectful toward me!”
Shirley revealed that when she and Gregory first started dating, they lived apart from his family in Sai Kung – that was the time when their relationship was at its best: “In the beginning, when we lived in Sai Kung, they [Lee family] lived upstairs and I paid for a unit for Gregory and myself downstairs -- our relationship was good and there were no issues. Since the two of us were living together, it would make sense that both of us should share the rent, but I didn’t mind taking on the responsibility. But I never thought that when we all moved from Sai Kung to Kowloon Tong, they would tell me that I had ‘too much stuff’ and therefore requested that I pay the moving fee for the entire household. I am only one person in the household, yet they had 3 people…I don’t know how I was able to accept it at the time…you understand? That type of miserable plight, how could I tell anyone?”
Gregory’s brother Augustine Lee had said that living in Kowloon Tong is considered a good area and plus they had a maid to do the housework. To this, Shirley expressed: “I had never requested any special treatment or insisted on living in any particular area – I just wanted to continue living my life together with Gregory. In terms of maintaining a good relationship with his family, well, it’s a two-way street -- it can’t be just me investing time and energy to make the relationship work…unfortunately though, my relationship with the family had already gotten to the point of ‘ignoring each other’. They say that they have a maid for me to use, but in reality, the maid does not take care of me or cook for me – she only takes care of them [Shih Ming and Augustine]…in fact, there are times when even Gregory doesn’t get food to eat! Whenever Gregory was at home, his mother pretty much ignored him – to her, no matter what he did, it was always wrong. Even when he brought his entire salary home and gave it to her, she would say that it’s not enough, so he would have no choice but to use his credit cards. It pained me a lot to see him struggling to pay off those credit cards, so I tried helping him out whenever I could. His brother [Augustine] doesn’t work and is very good at pushing off responsibilities onto others. What I don’t understand is that with the way his brother and mother ignore him all the time, why are they so ‘united’ all of a sudden? [referring to the family uniting to criticize her after the breakup issue occurred]. Nevertheless, if they have truly improved their relationship, I am happy for him [Gregory] and hope that they are able to maintain it forever.” (So Gregory isn’t respected at home?) “Right…that’s why whenever we encounter problems, the two of us try to resolve it ourselves. Sometimes, when he is not able to resolve the problem himself – for example, he doesn’t have money to buy food because he gave all his money to his family – I don’t mind helping him out…even in those types of circumstances, I didn’t leave him – seeing him all alone with no one else to help him, if I don’t help, then who else will? At home, there was fighting and arguing all the time – one time, Augustine even beat Gregory, to the point that he almost broke his arm! A lot of Gregory’s friends saw that his arm was hurt, but of course he would not tell them how he had gotten hurt. His mom was present [when his brother beat him], but she pretended nothing happened…even their neighbors know that they fight constantly! I’ve tried to be the ‘go-between’ a few times, but they would always tell me that it was none of my business. They way that they would hit Gregory and beat him, it could be a matter of life and death, so how could I ‘mind my own business’? Afterwards, they [his family] felt that I was too nosy and since then, they’ve been prejudiced against me and dissatisfied with me.”
During interviews with the Media, Gregory’s family has claimed that Shirley is a ‘free-loader’ and does not even contribute a penny to the household. To this, Shirley immediately refutes: “I feel very wronged by this! There have been situations where, for example, they would tell me that the water leak on the roof is because my dog caused it so I need to pay for the repairs – in reality, it had nothing to do with me, yet I still paid the 5 figure sum for the repairs…I’ve never complained about it! Don’t say that I’m a free-loader, as I’ve bought food for the household before! Gregory’s dad says that I never treat them to any meals, but that is completely false – whenever I’ve had the ability to do it, I’ve treated them.”
In addition to the inherent problems within the Lee family that have been difficult for her to bear, the fact that the Lee family does not interact with her family is another reason that led to the split: “I’m pretty traditional and am very filial toward my parents, but unfortunately, our families don’t interact with each other and don’t even get together or share gifts during the holidays -- not even one a ‘well-wishing’ phone call! Gregory also never takes the initiative to have dinner with my mom – it’s only on special occasions such as on my birthday, when I invite my parents to join us, that they get a chance to interact with him. Otherwise, for the most part, Gregory avoids my family, which I feel is very disrespectful!” (Did your mom oppose of your relationship at one point?) “My mom did advise me that I should start thinking about my future, but at no point did she ever complain about him [Gregory] being ‘poor’. The company [TVB] had even advised me at one point to keep my relationship low-key, but at the time, I was blinded by love and didn’t listen. Even my mom had reminded me at that time.”
With regard to Augustine Lee’s accusations that Shirley took the initiative to announce the breakup in order to satisfy her own desires, she refuted: “All along, my only ‘desire’ has been to live a stable, happy life with my family. From the moment I entered this industry, I’ve earned every dollar myself -- I have my own principles and have never ‘kissed up’ or tried to attach myself to anyone because of their wealth…I am not that type of person! If I were, I wouldn’t only have one piece of property – I would have dozens of properties and wouldn’t need to work so hard! In these past 9 years, there have been other guys who’ve tried to pursue me – and some of them are wealthy – yet I’ve never strayed! Yet what do I get for that – accusations that I broke up with Gregory because I’m money-crazy! That is very unfair to me!”
Shirley also emphasized that having dated Gregory for 9 years, of course she had considered marriage at one point: “I once expressed an interest in getting married, since we have been dating for 9 years already, however Gregory said that marriage is a simple thing, just a piece of paper…I told him it was not a simple thing that just involved signing a piece of paper – it requires a lot of planning, especially if we’re planning to have kids in the future. I asked him about planning for a family and for kids, however he didn’t respond. I asked him ‘so what does it mean?’…he said to let him think about it, but he still didn’t give me a response. He later told me that he had discussed with his family about marrying me at the end of the year, yet I had no clue about it – no one said anything to my family and he didn’t even propose! Plus there were so many ‘problems’ that haven’t even been resolved yet, how could we possibly get married? Actually, the problems have continued to accumulate and grown bigger in recent years, which caused cracks in our relationship. In the past few years, I’ve continued to stick by him and gave him many chances already.”
But how about the rumors that one of the biggest reasons for the breakup was the ‘third party’ Andy Ng? How about the rumors of him being a classmate of Shirley’s or that she had met him in Beijing while covering the 2008 Olympics for TVB? Shirley clarified: “All of those rumors are untrue. Andy is not one of my old classmates – he’s a friend that I’ve known even before I entered the industry; in fact, I’ve known him longer than I’ve know Gregory! We’ve always been just friends and never dated – we actually lost contact with each other for a long time. It wasn’t until last year that we bumped into each other again and renewed our friendship – but it was purely friendship, nothing else….we only started dating after I had told Gregory about breaking up and moved out of their house. Therefore, to be very clear, I never cheated on Gregory! Everyone criticizing Andy for being the ‘3rd wheel’ is very unfair to him. Also, he is definitely not a ‘wealthy second generation’ – he is just a regular person working in the business sector. If I was really trying to go after someone with money, why would I wait until now? The thing that makes me most angry is when the magazines claim that I had already cheated on Gregory even as far back as 9 years ago! Not only that, but they use a lot of exaggeration and distort things. All of those reports are false! Why do they have to use those types of words to describe the situation? Do they think they know the inside story?”
Insists that she is not pregnant
For the first time, Shirley also publicly acknowledges Andy Ng as her boyfriend: “He is my new boyfriend. I feel that he is suitable for me, as he cares a lot about me – we understand each other’s personalities really well. I’m not getting any younger and all along, I’ve wanted to start a family and have kids, so after breaking up with Gregory, I once fretted over being able to find someone else with whom I would have a deep relationship. Fortunately, the timing was right and I bumped into him [Andy] again – we only started dating in May….he is very respectful of my family and it is a very harmonious relationship – I definitely wish that everyone can continue to get along harmoniously in the future.”
With regard to the breakup between Shirley and Gregory, one of the biggest questions has revolved around whether the rumor about Shirley being pregnant is true? Shirley took the opportunity to explain: “I am NOT pregnant and I did NOT request a 9 month leave of absence from TVB. Aiye! I realize now that the worse thing I did was try to find an excuse to get Gregory to agree to the breakup…earlier, I texted him and told him ‘I have started a relationship with another man and am pregnant with his child. The only option at this point is to marry the other guy and have the baby.’ But he didn’t want to let go and also didn’t want me to make the announcement about our breakup, so he continued to call me and text me – this went on for a long period of time. I didn’t stop him from calling me because I was afraid he was going to do something rash, especially since he kept telling me that was going racing at night – I naively thought that making up the pregnancy excuse would cause him to let go.”
If that’s the case, then after you guys broke up, why did you still send him text messages stating that you love him and miss him? In response to this question, Shirley immediately took out her cell phone and showed the reporter the messages that she had sent to Gregory – the contents of the messages were along the lines of: ‘we were once very much in love, but even though we can no longer be together, I will continue to be supportive of you.’ Another message also stated that she is going to marry Andy. Shirley states: “In his text message to me, Gregory said that he loved me and missed me, so I replied back to him saying that I also love him and miss him, but because of the baby, I cannot be with him – his brother only took part of the message out of context and relayed it to the public. I never thought that a text message between the two of us would be revealed to the public like that! I realize how stupid I was and can only say that I did not handle the situation properly. I was desperate and didn’t know how else to get him [Gregory] to let go, so I made up the part about the baby…my intention was for both of us to move on with our lives.”
With the situation getting so out of hand and the mass criticisms that ensued, Shirley finally could not stop the tears from flowing – the interview had to be halted so she could regroup and during this time, she would not allow the photographer to take any pictures: “I do not want people to think that I am trying to garner sympathy.” Afterwards, she continued with the interview: “It’s hard for me to be that cruel! I was afraid that this situation (the breakup) would impact him greatly, but now at this point, it has impacted me even more! If I was able to break it off so easily, I would not have had to endure so much criticism. The two of us couldn’t be together anymore, not because we don’t love each other, but because there are a lot of problems existent in our relationship…I want to find someone to take care of me, but not with money – I want someone who I can feel secure with and who can give me happiness…I want to have kids and I want to get married…it’s that simple!”
Sources: Asianfanatics.net
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