Chilam Cheung Talks About His Marriage with Anita Yuen
Appearing in popular variety shows such as Viva La Romance 2<妻子的浪漫旅行> and Call Me by Fire <披荊斬棘的哥哥>, Chilam Cheung (張智霖) continues to maintain popularity in the Greater China Region. His playful, yet authentic interaction with his wife Anita Yuen (袁詠儀) is often the dream content for reality shows.
In an earlier episode of talk show Three Sisters <串椒3姊妹>, Chilam shared his marriage dynamics with hosts Margie Tsang (曾華倩), Cutie Mui (梅小惠), and Elvina Kong (江欣燕). It turns out his cousin Anna Ueyama (上山詩鈉) was very close with the trio, so Chilam also became good friends with them. When he was growing up, he was a big fan of Margie while watching her dramas, “At the time, I felt you were amazingly beautiful!”
Since Chilam is known for being a family man, the conversation eventually turned to his marriage. Together with Anita for nearly 30 years, it is incredible how affectionate they are towards each other. As to whether or not Anita still admires him, he said, “Not really. She thinks I’m like a handbag that is a part of her personal collection.”
Anita and Chilam love to tease through snide remarks, and it seems to keep their relationship fresh. Anita once complimented Chilam for not having a bad temper, but he revealed that they have conflicts every day. “I don’t throw a fit at anyone, but only with her. Sometimes I feel that she is making a scene out of nothing, but I don’t yell back.” When asked if he would change anything about his wife, he responded, “Don’t change me, and I don’t want to change you either. Just the way you are is the best.”
As he is an easygoing father, Chilam treats his teenage son Morton like a friend so that they can have open conversations. As for dating advice, Chilam said, “I told him to experiment as much as possible, so that he knows how to treat other people well. Of course, he needs to take safety precautions and be a good gentleman.”
Anita Yuen’s Depression Almost Led to Divorce with Chilam Cheung
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Hailey for JayneStars.com.
1) “The depression dragged on for half a year. Anita finally came to her senses when Chilam told her that they could no longer be together if she continued this downward spiral. Anita’s love for her family defeated all battles.” – This, is one weird response from anyone who is supporting a family member through Depression. | ( 2) Anita, has declared before that she checks in on Chilam or has expectations on him to report back. Aka prison warden kind of relationship. She came across as the Boss … but WHAT’s the point? When the cat is away, the mouse will play.
I think it’s cute that he will only ever argue with her. Most ppl don’t feel comfortable arguing with another person unless they are really close with that person and know the other person would get over it.
@nomad822 I totally agree. I was super surprised when Anita recounted what happened during her postpartum depression. I get that half a year of depression is a long period of time, but the lack of empathy from Chilam surprised me. On the other hand, I went thru the same thing as her and had a really rough postpartum period. My husband was also really short on me because I couldn’t stop wallowing in my emotions and crying. It basically came down to, either I snap out of it or the relationship is going to the dumps. I know, I still cringe when I think about it and I have forgiven him for his callous comments, but I will never forget it. It did pull me out of my slump, though. So it’s hard to say – it feels self-indulgent to be in those feelings (even if they’re outside of our control), when so much needs me being functional as a person.
@coralie sorry to hear about your experience. Just want to add my 2 cents on this matter. Taking the perspective of my friend (though told by victim lol), whose sister also had postpartum depression. She, her mother and the husband supported the sister for half a year also, while all she did was eat and sleep, and she does not care about the new born at all. The sister when telling me this admitted that during that time she was “terrible”, because of her depression, she took medication to combat it, and end up just eating constantly, sleeping, and generally don’t care about anything or anyone. After half a year, my friend got fed up, and told her off. Her mother scolded her for not being supportive of her sister, but the sister because of that fight, snapped out of it, realising she needs to be in control, she stopped taking the medication, and take on the depression by herself by going to group therapy, church, etc, for support. Depression is terrible for all parties, however, we are all human, after putting in as much as we could, at the end of the day, we all have the right to let go. And it’s not like ChiLam gave her an ultimatum straight away, he has been there for her for that first half a year. Empathy can only go so long, you can’t expect it’ll last forever.
Also anita’s recounted of her perspective on how ChiLam handled baby Morton is very skewed. He was being a new father, who probably didn’t have experience, plus his wife was in a delicates state, and she might not be as hand in and reassuring him on how to handle the baby, that I feel that view on ChiLam’s handling of the baby is how he was handling her, afraid she might break/didn’t know how/what to do with her.
My in-laws also has the next door neighbor whose wife is also postpartum depressed, and it has been 5yrs+ now. According to my in laws, the husband will just let her do whatever, and just go to work. Their son though, is a sad story, because of her depression, she does not care for him, so he always acts out, can’t communicate well, unless it’s swearing, being rude, and basically downright terrible, he just do whatever by himself during the day while his dad was working. Anyway, I hope you don’t have to experience this ever again, however, I do hope you can get pass this issue with your husband, as it’s tough, it’s tough for you, it’s also tough for him. Lots of love.
@LittleFish thanks for relating and sharing the story. I agree, sometimes it’s hard to say if something is right or wrong, and half a year is pretty sufficient, but considering that they prob had a lot of help around, Chilam could’ve taken her to a therapist or put her on meds instead of contemplating divorce, I think. I didn’t have that luxury; I was only exhibiting PPD for about a month and then was given that harsh slap back to reality as we didn’t have any support system, hence why I needed to be functional. And maybe that was what I needed, because otherwise I would just continue to downward spiral in my emotional state.
He might just be a tough love type of guy and there is some co-dependency in a way because Anita cried on a TV show that she cannot leave Chilam’s side for more than 3 days. She tried it once and cried.