Taipei - Entertainers Harlem Yu and Annie Yi are ending their nine-year marriage, after years of rumours about their rough patches and months after she was photographed holding hands with actor Victor Huang.

Amid talk that Yi's tense relationship with her mother-in-law could have contributed to the break-up, Huang has said: 'I have finally cleared my name.'

Yu, 47, and Yi, 40, sent out separate, similar statements last Friday. Hers, posted on Chinese Web portal Sohu, read: 'I, Annie Yi, have signed an agreement with Harlem Yu to end our marital relationship. I hope calm can return to the family. Thank you for your concern, you have worked hard.'

Regional media received his statement three hours later. It was almost the same as hers, except with their names reversed.

According to Apple Daily, he is getting custody of the couple's seven-year-old son and she, visitation rights.

Yi, who has been based in China, will keep her four properties there worth NT$76 million (S$3.4 million) but will not get alimony, the report said. Yu, who is said to be worth NT$300 million, reportedly bought her the properties.

The singer-host and actress-singer were in a low-key relationship for 12 years before they married.

Her godfather, agent Hsia Yu-shun, said she went along with whatever Yu wanted 'from age 17 to age 37'. He added: 'Harlem Yu is a good man but also a dutiful son. It was difficult for Annie Yi as a daughter- in-law although Yu's mother tried her best too and should not be criticised.'

In happier times, Yi wrote of how much she loved Yu in her 2002 bestseller Testament Of Life And Death. She said then: 'I must live one day more than you. I will help bury you, so you will have peace of mind and not the pain of loss, and then I will accompany you.'

Since the scandal broke out last November, Huang has distanced himself from her. Reports said he is still with his girlfriend of 19 years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.