Yammie Nam’s Rollercoaster Love Life
Despite her unforgettable beauty and promising early career, Yammie Nam‘s (藍潔瑛) life has unfolded tragically. Following her notable performance in the TVB classic The Greed of Man <大時代>, the 1980s actress spiraled into depression and mental instability. Her sufferings stem from a series of unfortunate events and witnessing two boyfriends who had committed suicide.
Often spotted wandering aimlessly on the streets, Yammie’s mental illness made it impossible to keep a steady job. In 2006, she filed for bankruptcy. Reportedly suffering from a uterine tumor, Yammie refused to seek medical treatment.
A Rape Victim
In 2013, Yammie revealed that she was raped by two men in the Hong Kong industry approximately thirty years ago. Although one of the men has already passed away, Yammie is unable to put the rape behind her and attempted suicide on several occasions.
Eager to Find Love
As one of the most beautiful and prominent TVB actresses during the 1980s, Yammie had many pursuers. However, Yammie possessed a moody personality and did not like to socialize. An insider shared that Yammie most wanted to have a family. “She really wanted to get married and have children. Although she was handpicked by the producer to participate in a series even before graduating from training class, she was not ambitious with her career. Instead, she was more focused on dating.”
In 1985, Yammie met her first love, Mr. Deng. A year into their relationship, Mr. Deng suddenly committed suicide in 1986.
Suffering from immense heartache, Yammie’s good friend and emcee, Paul Chung (鍾保羅), stayed by her side and consoled her. The two friends eventually began dating. An insider revealed, “At the time, they were both very popular, so they had an underground relationship and didn’t let the company know. But Paul was a gambling addict. He couldn’t earn enough to repay his debts.” In 1989, Paul took his life by jumping off a building.
From 1996 to 1998, Yammie dated billionaire Cheng Yu Tong‘s (鄭裕彤) son, Peter Cheng (鄭家成), who was a generous lover and gifted her with a $5.5 million HKD luxury house. However, the couple split after a heated argument while vacationing in Nepal.
In 2001, Yammie began dating a man she met from Church. Two years into their relationship, the couple had plans to get married and immigrate to Canada. Yammie’s close friend revealed that with Yammie’s career slowing down, she was looking forward to starting a family. Unfortunately, the relationship ended in 2003, as the man reportedly could not handle Yammie’s unpredictable mood swings.
During an interview, the jaded Yammie shared, “I still really want to date, but romantic love to me is now a luxury. Every time I dated before, I devoted everything, but each time I would be very hurt.,, Now my only wish is to die peacefully and not reincarnate into a human in my next life. Humans suffer a lot, both in spirit and body.”
Source: ihktv.com
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
The only thing she truly needs right now is not a man, but professional help. From her erratic mood swings and self harm tendencies, she seems to be suffering from bipolar and it is only a matter of time before she hurts herself if left untreated.
@rika
I agree with you that at the stage that she is in she really needs professional help not just a man in her life. However, maybe having a guy to love and care for her is also something she really needs in order to help her get that professional treatment that she needs. Right now with no family or financial back up, how can she get any kind of help? But honestly, in her condition,which guy would be willing to put out so much effort and all to love and care for her? She may be suffering from serious mental problems that may cause her to not only hurt herself but possibly others too. I feel very bad for her but at the same time,who can truly help her now?
I have heard about her sad love life through the years and feel very sad for her. I remember that her first boyfriend committed suicide while she was filming Hier to the throne is… But she was very professional during the filming and did not let it effect the filming progress.
She also had a sad childhood so I feel so bad for her that she seemed to have a sad life throughout. Some may have a sad early life but at least had a happy adult life. Yammie sadly has not had much happiness in her life. She was even kicked by that one Taiwanese actress too. Life can truly be so cruel to some people but so good to others. You really wonder if karma even exists at all?
@hetieshou Realistically, the chances of her finding a man whom is willing to fund her medications and care for her is close to 1%. Not impossible, but highly improbable. I am not sure how profound HK’s public mental health welfare is and whether the state allows a living relative or close friend to institutionalize her against her will. Nevertheless, if friends or family do care, I hope they can find ways to compel her to continue to seek treatment.
She was one of my favorite actresses during my childhood so it is rather dejecting to see her become like this. She may have had a rough life which resulted in her thinking that she has nothing to live for. But we all know that is not true. As long as she wills it, new bonds can be forged again and again. Besides her mental health issue, she is also plagued by extreme pessimism and nihilism. Negative thoughts are a frightening thing; it pushes one into the abyss of darkness and loops it endless times till the person’s will to live is completely destroyed. Unless she wants to walk out of it, otherwise she will be stuck in the death loop till she destroys herself.
@rika
^ “she is also plagued by extreme pessimism and nihilism. Negative thoughts are a frightening thing; it pushes one into the abyss of darkness and loops it endless times till the person’s will to live is completely destroyed. Unless she wants to walk out of it, otherwise she will be stuck in the death loop till she destroys herself.”
Totally AGREE! While one can argue she was biologically pre-dispositioned, the negative experiences factors she encountered is miles more than what any normal person sees in their lifetime as well. But for every one person like that, there is always a far worse case.
Yes her life was very unfair, compared to most people.
BUT how to face it henceforth also remains within herself. This is her own self-reflection button she has to push to avoid the continuous negative spiral downwards.
An unchanging ‘Woe is Me’ victim mentality will not help. Her life has been hard … but to use it as propelling motivation to live it better henceforth can be a positive motivation most victimized people cannot see.
There is no magic one-sz-fits-all solution. It is a combination.
She still has her own mobility, and two legs to walk and do stuff for herself. That, in a way is better than many people in hospitals who are helpless.
NO amount of counselling or medications (with its own negative side effects depending on individual – it totally dulls some people) will magically help, if she stubbornly doesn’t want to move and re-frame her thoughts for her own future moving on forward
Reality is – she may not have anything/anyone to live for. Even people with families may have kids there only because of assets and property or what they can get, NOT because they’re there out of love and filial piety. Not much different from being~feeling alone.
At the end of the day, people live for themselves.
No one/no good friend can bail anyone out as they lie on a hospital bed suffering. In fact some well- meaning visitors can become ‘bright and chatty’ irritants when patients are just trying to quietly cope and battle with their private pain.
While biologically predispositioned, a person also has to have many accumulated factors and environmental triggers/catalysts to bring her to this state.
This poor woman really had a lot of emotional hard knocks in life.
What she perhaps needs is a positive relationship/s to restore some faith and trust. She needs someone who genuinely cares with no motives = that makes a world of difference.
A professional can help with counselling and medication, but even that has limits. Counselling is about putting things into perspective and reframing, facilitating self-knowledge. Ultimately that also lies within herself if she cannot buy-in anyway and push that button from within herself.
No one is going to be with her through life, except herself. Even in the happiest of marriages, one person leaves prematurely, sometimes even 20-30 years ahead.
Some people can be independently strong and operate well solitarily alone, some social types always need people around them, social validation-agreement from others when making decisions. Their world collapses when these fail them.
Even if Yammi belongs to the latter group, she has to be strong, to think independently for herself.No one can hand-hold her for life too, even if they have all good intentions.
She’s vulnerable to manipulation at this mental frame of mind too – which she perhaps sensed when she thought (true or untrue) that some friends had religious agendas for helping her, and reacted accordingly (Mary Han, church, buddhist beads of her parents etc)
The only person accompanying Yammi, is herself. The ultimate buy-in and button to push for change has to come from within, even when she has already ridden too many emotional roller-coasters to be so mentally/emotionally scarred.
On another note, how ironic life can be.
The botox and aging-phobic industry peers her age who love themselves a lot, and take care of themselves; spa and do all they can to ‘artificially alter and control’ what they can to the point of grotesque (Irene Wan Pek Ha comes to mind) ……
And here is Yammi at 49 and disheveled on the street, not in spa-form or clad in all designer duds … yet her natural beauty still comes across as pretty with good bone structure, even as she sits on street corners smoking.
She had suffered a great deal in her life no wonder she is mentally unsound now. Hope she’ll get better and move on with her life, but I doubt she ever will. Sigh…
@tess she looks much better in a recent interview by now tv.here is the link,its only a preview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=195RtiEgLXs
@kolo – Thank you for sharing the link! I was not aware that Yammie accepted an interview recently. From the preview, she seems rather uncomfortable. But understandably so, as she has been away from the prying public eye for a long time. I’m excited for this interview!
@huynh “she seems rather uncomfortable.” yes i agee, here is the whole interview.
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/W9VeZvO4rd0/
you can see that she has suffered a lot in the past,hope she can find happiness in her life again.