ST 9 Mar 2005
Love on the rocks Life! traces how the marriage between glamour acting couple Li Nanxing and Yang Libing fell apart
By Mak Mun San and Foong Woei Wan
IN THE end, the fairytale marriage was just not meant to be.
'We've been living apart and in separate rooms for the past three years' -- Li Nanxing (above right) on his relationship with wife Yang Libing in a statement released by his management company, LNX Global. -- PHOTOS: LIANHE ZAOBAO AND SHIN MIN
Last Friday, MediaCorp actor Li Nanxing confirmed that he and his actress wife of 10 years, Yang Libing, have split.
In a statement released by his management company, LNX Global, he said: 'We have been living apart and in separate rooms for the past three years.'
Emphasising that there was 'no third party involved', he appealed to the media to 'respect our privacy in this matter'.
This followed days of front page headlines in Chinese dailies and frenzied speculation that the couple's marriage was on the rocks.
News first broke last Wednesday that Li, 40, and Yang, 39, have been separated since November last year and have filed for divorce.
A businesswoman had allegedly come between them and Yang was said to be the one who asked for a divorce.
Initially, Li denied the break-up and dismissed the rumours as 'rubbish'. Yang, on the other hand, neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
Things took a dramatic turn on Monday when Li's mother got involved in the saga, revealing astonishing details of her son's failed marriage.
Yang's elder sister and former actress, Lina, also stepped forward and denied the older woman's claims on her sister's behalf.
So, what exactly happened that led to the split of one of Singapore's most famous glamour couples?
Both Li and Yang could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Li's manager, Ms Teri Tan, did not answer repeated calls to her mobile phone.
Yang was not around when Life! visited De Elements, the hair salon in Toa Payoh she runs with Lina.
Life! pieces together what is turning out to be one of the biggest local showbiz stories of the year.
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Yang Libing: I'm a tough cookie
SHE is said to be a fiery chilli padi who bosses her henpecked husband around.
But Yang Libing said she is actually protecting Li Nanxing by playing the bad guy.
He is too 'soft and gullible', she explained, crediting him for training her 'to become the tough cookie I am today'.
The couple met in 1986 when they were drama trainees at the then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. She is described as a 'chilli padi' and he as 'lazy'.
In response to her mother-in-law's allegations that she bullies Li, Yang said: 'This is because she loves her son. Who doesn't have parents?'
Li's mother claimed that the actor once had to sleep at a bus stop in the middle of the night - implying that Yang shut her husband out of the house.
But according to a friend close to the couple, Yang had left Li at his mother's place that night because he was too tired.
When she later learnt that Li had disappeared, she drove around looking for him, together with Li's mother.
His mother has also alleged that Yang would kick up such a storm every time Li wanted to visit her that her son would go home only once a year.
In response, Yang's elder sister Lina said that her sister had in fact asked Li to visit his mother. However, she claimed that there was nothing Yang could do if Li was 'born lazy'.
Yang herself has declined so far to comment on whether it was she who asked for a divorce, or on rumours that a married businesswoman is the third party.
The couple on their wedding day in 1994, with fellow stars (from left) Ivy Lee, Cynthia Koh, Cherie Lim and Christie Wong.
As to what really happened, she said that 'they should know better', without specifying whom she meant by 'they'.
'When there is a definite answer to this matter, I'll explain everything. I won't run away.'
Ever since news of the divorce broke, Yang has maintained a calm and collected composure in front of the media.
In fact, she has only good words for Li, whom she met in 1986 when the two of them were drama trainees at the then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation.
'It doesn't matter if I still love him or not. As a friend or as a lover, I have never wanted anything bad to happen to him.'
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Li Nanxing 'slept at a bus stop'
IN THE history of marital relations, many a husband has been tossed out of the bedroom and banished to the couch by his wife - former American president Bill Clinton included.
But Li Nanxing, the king of Caldecott Hill, got it worse. He once had to spend the night at a bus stop after a spat with his actress wife Yang Libing.
Or so his mother claims.
She lamented to the press that after Li married Yang in 1994, he would only visit her once a year, for the Chinese New Year reunion dinner. 'Whenever he wanted to come back, somebody would quarrel with him and the bickering would become extremely severe. To patch things up, my son had to give in,' she said.
Li, the third of four children of a vegetable farmer and a seamstress, grew up in Lim Chu Kang.
Once, he had to leave his mother's home in a hurry because he and Yang had an especially heated argument over his visit. That night, his mother said, she was worried that 'something would happen' and went to his home at about 3am.
She said she saw him sleeping on a seat at a bus stop in his neighbourhood.
'I cried for two days after that. Why was my son this miserable? He's a big star, reduced to sleeping at a bus stop.'
In 1994, Li bought a marital home, a terrace house in Sin Ming Road, for $1.4 million, although his monthly pay then was just $7,000.
She said he told her then that he would reserve a room there for her.
But since then, she said she had set foot in his house only twice.
She said that after she saw how her son was 'bullied' by Yang, her relationship with her daughter-in-law deteriorated.
Of the divorce, she said: 'It's time that my son's pain ended. When two people quarrel all the time, it's better to part sooner, so each can give the other space to live his life well.'
Li himself has spoken to the press about his days as Yang's long-suffering husband.
'From the first time we met to the time we were married, I really had a hard time. I was always enduring actually, hoping to keep it going, but really there was no way and it had to end.'
He blamed their break-up on their incompatible personalities. She was ambitious, and he was too low-key, he said.
It did not help that their work kept them apart.
In 1987, Li shot to stardom with his first show On The Fringe. He was voted among the 10 most popular male artistes at the Star Awards more than 10 times during an 18-year career.
At the height of his success, he married Yang.
In the late 1990s, he invested in a bar and a disco but both businesses failed. In 1997, he was caught drink-driving.
Last year, he went into a venture with the management company LNX Global - LNX are the initials of his name - in which he has shares.
He is now considering working in Shanghai and Beijing in future.
As to talk that a third party, a married businesswoman, had come between them, his answer was crisp: 'I wouldn't dare.'
What about a woman who had been seen driving him home by his neighbours? 'She's a driver employed by the management company,' was his reply.
Some of his neighbours also told the press that on several occasions, they saw him going home in a drunken stupor and heard him shouting outside his house.
The actor explained that it was because he was running bars then and had to entertain guests.
However, his mother had a different spin to the story. She said: 'He took to drink to drown his sorrows because he was troubled and extremely unhappy.'
And now that he has filed for divorce and moved back to his mother's home, he is a changed man, she said. 'He doesn't even drink a drop now.'
