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Tue, Dec 08, 2009
The New Paper
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Kym Ng eats like a dog
by Charlene Chua

A16-YEAR secret love affair is no longer secret. Yes, Kym Ng is married. Yes, her husband exists. And yes, he does, indeed, speak – and well, too.

Where other local TV personalities have very public love lives, with grand weddings, this popular actress- host has always been fiercely private about the man in her life.

He has never been photographed; he has never spoken to the media. And she has never revealed more than a few details about their relationship, or her man.

All that changed last week.

She opened up for the first time about the man in her life, their courtship and their marriage in October.

And during the interview with The New Paper on Sunday over the phone from her new two-storey condominium “with an unblocked city view”, she surprisingly relented when asked if we could squeeze in one question for her hubby.

The media has always been intrigued by the mystery man who had courted Kym for more than a decade. He is known even until today only as Mr Yang, occupation unknown.

Not even her colleagues know much about him.

And as there were no reported sightings or published pictures of him, some netizens had speculated that Kym – who has always been secretive about her age but is said to be in her late 30s – was dating a woman.

So let us speak to the man,we asked.

Shouted Kym to her husband: “The reporter wants to know what you love about me!”

Sense of humour

A deep, masculine voice in the background replied: “Your sense of humour.”

He then offered some other morsels of information but this was muffled by Kym holding the phone against her behind.

She said giggling: “You can hear ah? He has such a sexy voice, doesn’t he?”

What does Mr Yang, who is a few years older than Kym,look like?

According to Kym, he is very tanned (from playing golf regularly), has “normal-sized” eyes, a big nose - “you know what that means!” said Kym laughing – has thick lips, a cleft chin and lots of “sexy” facial stubble.

It was previously reported that he’s Singaporean Chinese, 1.75-m tall and looks like Hong Kong actor Lau Ching Wan (only more handsome).

How does he make his woman this happy? With his wit.He loves to tease her with insults, but it’s all in good fun and cracks her up “every single time”, she said.

“I’m a very boring person so I love it that my husband makes me laugh all the time.

“When he sees me having breakfast in the morning, he’d say ‘Darling, you’re so cheap to upkeep, always eating biscuits like a dog’.

“Another time he saw me in a bikini, he said ‘I think you’ve lost something darling’. I was so worried and kept asking him ‘What, what? What did I lose?’ He said ‘Your waist’.

“I couldn’t stop laughing.” She would also join in with what she calls her classic comebacks.

When he had called her a dog, she exclaimed: “No, I’m not a dog. I’m a bitch.”

And when he’s on the phone, she would joke: “Why? Talking to cheap girls again, is it?”

But nothing infuriates the English-educated Mr Yang more than Kym misusing English phrases.

“He always says ‘Darling, can you speak proper English please. It’s fall, not fall down, because it means the same thing.’

“He’d be very mad but I would still say it because he’s so funny when he’s like that.”

He’s a “romantic lover”, frequently surprises Kym with flowers, holds her hand when watching TV, cooks – he specialises in Western dishes – and helps with the housework, she said.

He’s also a private person.

Kym said she doesn’t want him to be “affected” by her fame.

How has she managed to keep him under wraps for 16 years?

Kym insisted that they have never taken special measures to disguise themselves from the public, such as wearing caps and sunglasses.

She has introduced him to friends, colleagues and even reporters she’s familiar with.

Curious glance

“But strangers who come up to me to say hi are very nice. I’m always holding hands with my husband but they don’t ask who he is. They usually just give him a curious glance.”

Hawker centres, movie theatres and shopping malls are where you may spot the couple.

In keeping with their low-key relationship, Kym decided to get hitched in a private ceremony at a secret overseas location two months ago.

“We went to a nearby country and took a short but nice break. It was pure relaxation and we ordered lots of room service.

“It’s not considered our honeymoon but that doesn’t matter as we have been on so many trips together,” she said.

The couple read their vows in a “normal Registry Of Marriages building”.

The holiday and five-star hotel accommodation was all paid for by Mr Yang.

But the price he paid was nothing compared to the nine months of “torture” that he had to go through.

In January, The New Paper had reported that Kym’s condition for marriage was a condominium with an unblocked city view. Mr Yang had to look for the perfect home before he could marry her.

But budget constraints meant that the search took longer than expected. Kym declined to reveal how much they spent, but said both of them paid for the house.

“I was so worried I couldn’t get married this year. But we made it and had a really lovely tea ceremony at our home with our families.”

Kym had asked her florist to decorate her entire home with flowers, including champagne-coloured roses in her toilet. Only family members attended the ceremony.

She confessed that she was so moved during the ceremony that she cried.

It was a different Kym, however, who was crying by the roadside more than 10 years ago.

Recalling the couple’s worst quarrel ever, she said they were in the car when her husband (then boyfriend) told her to “get out” at a traffic junction. She claims to have forgotten what they were fighting about. Sobbing, she got out, telling him tearily that she would call him later that night.

“He’s not the perfect man, but he’s perfectly suited for me. From being hot-tempered, I’ve now ‘trained’ him to be patient.”

She flashed her white gold diamond wedding ring when she spoke to us at the New City Beat press conference on Thursday.

Mr Yang had bought it from Tiffany & Co in the US after she told him that she liked its design. Now that she has the perfect ring, hubby and home, what about kids?

Kym said she does not want children – “as I’m difficult to take care of as it is” – although she admitted that her husband wouldn’t mind the pitter-patter of little feet.

“Unless accident! Choi choi (dialect for touch wood)!” she said animatedly, banging the wooden table in front of her.

She doesn’t think that it would get boring or lonely for them in their golden years.

She said: “Living with my husband makes me a happier woman.I feel more complete.

“I actually see him being funnier when he’s 60 or 70.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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