In yet another twist in the Vivian-Joe relationship saga, Hong Kong's EastWeek magazine yesterday reported that Vivian Chow and Joe Ni are in fact already husband and wife.

They were reportedly married in 1998 when the couple migrated to the United States, which was the reason why Vivian has stuck by her erstwhile man all this time.

The magazine went on to elaborate that when Vivian gave up her singing career to move to the US to be with Joe in 1997, she had not obtained permanent US residential status. She could only stay in the country between one and three months each time before her tourist visa expired. The couple then decided that they would register their marriage, which was witnessed by Joe's parents and a few relatives.

The couple then stayed in San Francisco until 1999 before Vivian finally received her US citizenship. The couple then moved to Canada.

In a related development, the third party, Mifty Zhang had written in her blog to wish Joe happiness with Vivian after learning that the pair had announced their marriage plans. She also wrote: "I will keep mum about our secret, because I love you".

There were earlier speculation that the 'secret' Mifty had referred to were the 'love photos' that she was reported to have wanted to make public when she was reported to have wanted to disrupt Joe and Vivian's wedding.