Monica Chan Breaks Down Over Con-Artist Ex-boyfriend
Former beauty queen, Monica Chan (陳法蓉), went through torturous romances that left her heartbroken more than once, but the former TVB actress quickly pulled herself back together and came back much stronger and braver each time – at least, in front of the press.
With best friends such as Ada Choi (蔡少芬) and Catherine Hung (洪欣) already starting a family of their own, the 45-year-old Monica admitted that she was a bit jealous, but did not complain about her current spinster life, and exclaimed that marriage “isn’t a big deal.” With no strings attached, Monica appeared to be happy and genuinely content with her current life.
Monica Chan Breaks Down about Ex-Boyfriend
Earlier, Monica appeared in an episode of mainland Chinese reality game show, Battle of the Sexes <男左女右>, as a guest participant. The show usually invites exactly 100 males and 100 females to be the audience, and brings in three pairs of male and female celebrities – one pair being real husband and wife – to lead the team of 200 people.
At the start of the show, Monica expressed a positive view on her own single life. She said, “If we can live with confidence, earn our own money, and take care of ourselves, why would marriage be necessary? If I grabbed a random guy in the street and married him, he would not make me happy, and he would end up becoming my worst enemy. I will then have to use the rest of my life to defeat him.”
In one segment, Monica had to act out a scene where she had just broken up with her boyfriend. She was given a script, which read, “I just want a man to love me! How come I don’t have men who want me?” After reciting these words, Monica began to break down in tears.
“I really don’t know how to say his name with my lips anymore. It hurts my heart.” Monica was referring to the con artist Chu Ming (朱明), who she broke up with in 2009.
Confusing Love Relationships
Monica’s first boyfriend in the business was Joe Nieh (倪震), whom she began to date in 1994. At the time, Joe had just broken up with Vivian Chow (周慧敏), and Monica’s relationship with Joe did not receive favorable press. Monica later broke up with Joe after he reconciled with Vivian.
In 2001, it was revealed that Monica was dating rich heir Julian Hui (許晉亨). The pair reportedly considered each other as marriage partners after only a few months of dating. As quickly as their flames flared, the relationship inexplicably ended a few months later. Julian later became the husband of Michelle Reis (李嘉欣), who dated Joe Nieh when she was competing in the 1988 Miss Hong Kong Pageant.
Monica’s love life went public once again in 2008 after news broke out that she and Sharon Luk (陸詩韻) were fighting over “Oil King” Chu Ming. Sharon ultimately backed down in the end, and Monica’s high-profile relationship with Chu Ming began. She took him home to meet her parents and also introduced him to some of her closest friends. Monica also considered retiring from showbiz.
However, Chu Ming, who claimed he had a net worth of over one billion dollars (HKD), turned out be a fraud. He was in fact a failed businessman by the name of Chan Jun, who filed for bankruptcy after the 1997 financial crisis. Ten years later, he returned to social circles and changed his name to Chu Ming, seducing many former Miss Hong Kong beauties and celebrities for their fame and money.
Chu Ming went missing in 2009 after accumulating a heap of debt. Monica was betrayed and heartbroken.
“He is dead to me,” Monica said.
Source: 3 Weekly #706 via ihktv.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
wow. are all these stories really true? everyone is interconnected – how does THAT happen???
Miss HK was always impressive because she has great muscle tone.
I wish that Cecil Chau was not an asshole and has been secretly maried to Yiu Wai all along and their cautionary tale was just a public service to the worldwide Chinese population. Then all the other stories in the press could be fake as well – but then the one thing I can’t get over when I try to imagine if these stories could believably be concoctions – all the babies from multiple marriages – who would agree to make babies in a fake marriage – are they really just miscredited to Baby Daddy’s instead of to their mother’s secret one and only husband’s??
wait – those two cited married friends are NOT to be envied at all – they’ve had rocky roads no one would want for themselves. At least, this Miss HK isn’t burdened by rejected babies.
Look at the men Monica date and the time-frame of her relationships. She is reaping what she sowed being a gold-digger. Men are not stupid. Eventually, her true colours show with her bad attitude, they dump her. When you have not met Monica in person, you sympathize her. Wait till you have a taste of her true colours – just another 2-face gold-digger. But probably her acting sucks in real life cos it’s her own script haha! You deserve what you reap Monica Chan!
It is not just her and you wonder if she was after only money?? I have a feeling that she wants love as well but you know that many actresses live the high life and want someone that is well off. That is normal and even normal citizens would want that(not everyone,but you know..) so they can sit back and not struggle financially since it is a hard world out there. But of course, the emotional feelings should be there too, however, love and money go together because if you don’t even have the simple necessities of life, then your emotional love life would be affected too.
very true hetieshou 🙂
it’s true that she only seems to go with men who qualify for Amex’s premium cards but poor men can be cads too and I bet in HK, there are many predators and wastrels happy to make a lonely actress who does not sell herself – feel courted. I think she said something about that in some interview with maybe Steven Chan or one of those types of interviews in empty pricey restaurant shows.
Wow, joe nieh dated three famous sweethearts Monica chan, Michelle Reis and Vivian chow? Who is he btw? He doesnt look that attractive. Is he rich or something?
Woooo,
Joe Nieh is the son of Ni Kuang, a famous HK science fiction writer. Ni Kuang’s famous works include Wai See-lei (or Wisely 衛斯理) and Yuen Tsang-hop (or Dr. Yuen 原振俠), which were both adapted into TVB dramas.
Ni Kuang is also good friends with wuxia writer, Jin Yong.
He is currently married to Vivian Chow.
he is also the founder of YES! magazine in hong kong.
Joe is very cute and charismatic, if you are a naive girl. I used to listen to his radio show and I swear, I was having a crush on him. Later, after all these negative news broke out, I realize – he’s just another rich heir douche.
Yeah, he is.
yeah he cheated on vivian chow too. dont like him. She could do much better.
damn her life is sad….it can actually be made into a drama or movie.
not as sad as some african women, sold by their parents/husbands to human trafficking mafias in italy to pay off debts of $50,000, these ladies, around the age of 19 rent street spaces say 1 sq ft from the thugs for about $400 per month, they cannot overcharge costumers, the fee is $13 per trick, the women were raped into submissive, given drugs, beaten up before they were thrown out into the streets to work, they are illegal immigrants, so the authorities in italy cannot do anything for them, treated as merchandise, some of them are locked up in buildings, firegun armed men withold them against their will, some of these ladies have husbands and babies in africa
Yammy Lam is sad – I think this actress has a good life – if her only complaint is that she remains unmarried (unimpregnated for the wrong reasons, uncheated of her nest egg like Charlie yeung and others, untraumatized by serious emotional seduction, etc., etc.)
i think in pragmatic, babyless HK, it’s a good thing to be employed single attractive female – as long as you are not a hypocrite with an achilles heel like Cally Wong who bends over backwards to “disprove” any hint of being a homewrecker – claiming that she NEVER goes after married men … tsk, tsk and is just a respectable career woman and not a professional courtesan or worse.
Join TVB!
She’s absolutely right in that not being married is not a big deal. I imagine it might be lonely at times but it’s infinitely better than marrying someone just for the sake of being married.
so agreed with Lee
it’s probably less lonely in HK and less lonely when you are financially comfortable because HK’s service industry is super attentive an feeds narcissists – they go out of their way to make paying customers feel like princesses – something that most Americans NEVER experience and most wives probably never experience out of a really good HK restaurant.
i actually clicked on the link and read the article. In the article it mentioned Myolie and this is her quote,
“胡杏兒：痛恨狐狸精
在《男左女右》節目中，其中一集的嘉賓是胡杏兒，而和拍拖8年的男友黃宗澤分手後，粉絲也非常關心她的最新感情狀況。主持李湘問她有否新男友，她即不置可否，只感嘆：「在娛樂圈拍拖是一件很奢侈的事，面對很多流言蜚語，戀情萌芽時便被扼殺了。」另外，在其中一個遊戲環節，問到女人最怕甚麼？胡杏兒即表示「小三」或者「狐狸精」，李湘更開玩笑加一句「胡杏兒最討厭狐狸精」，胡杏兒隨即點頭同意，似是默認早前的分手原因。”
Basically alluding to a possible third party in her past relationship … but it’s all speculation.
possible. But Aren’t all women afraid of third parties?
see fay – that is what all humans should be afraid of so even if you are not a naturally reclusive character, it’s better to be a known social nonstarter so that you never inadvertently end up being involved in something that will involve some kind of collateral damage
my dad told my mom to always avoid couples and never assume they are legally wed – just go invisible.
Joe Nieh is a ‘yee sai joe’ and a lady’s man. He cheated on Vivian Chow too, but she forgave him and married him later. This made a lot of folks lose respect for Vivian, as if she cannot live without a man, or bear to start over without Joe Nieh. Vivian probably felt too old to start over again, and didn’t want to die a spinster.
Monica Chan is pretty, statuesque and elegant. She can still find a husband but she needs to be smarter about it than trying to hook a rich HK tycoon or ‘yee sai joe’ who will have their pick of pretty HK starlets to play with. Her BFFs – Ada Choi, the late Jacqueline Law and Kitty Lai all married modest looking but decent men. Kitty Lai met her husband in church, I think. Church gatherings are a good place to meet your future husband (especially for Christians who insist on marrying fellow Christians). If not, Monica can marry a white man like Karen Mok. Many older, divorced or widowed white men, make good husbands and don’t mind marrying older women. It may be a stereotype, but I’ve heard some of these white men say that they prefer to have asian women as wives because asian women are more nurturing, docile and attentive while white women are too dominant in a relationship and will not compromise. You’ll never see white women fetching slippers for their husbands.
Monica is really pretty. She could have easily hooked another rich man when she was younger but too bad her age is catching with her.
Sorry I do not really sympathise with her.
Will she fight tooth and nail with another
woman if Chu Ming is not a ‘Oil king’?
LOL . I agreed .
yeah true.
white women refuse to ‘fetch’ and be treated like dogs, unlike ‘docile’ well-trained asian women.
@Felicity,
I heard that Kitty and Jacqueline’s husbands were both well off too, so it is not like they did not look for people who can provide for them well since they no longer work. I guess it is not wrong to try to find a well off guy if you are not able to provide for yourself, but if that is all you go for, then that is not the way to go. I think women should be more independant and not just think that the guy should provide for them which is a very traditional way of thinking of it.I personally belief that if you are not emotionally happy then all of the materialistic needs are useless. Also, who said that all women needed to get married and have kids?? That is not everyone’s goal in life.
I don’t everyone lost respect for Vivian after she forgave and married Joe. Some may even respect her more for forgiving and giving him another chance because not all people are able to do so.
wow awesome thoughts !!!! so so true. i dont think i could have forgiven him. I am not generous enough.
@HeTieShou
Kitty Lai’s husband is a professional (pilot or doctor, I think?) and Jacqueline’s husband is a businessman. It’s true that financially, they are considered middle to upper middle class, if not filthy rich. It sounds reasonable to me, and it’s common for people to marry into a similar class (financially) as themselves. Kitty and Jacqueline were not gold diggers who chose their million dollar tycoon husbands so they could live lavishly like rich taitais (eg. Michelle Reis, Gigi Lai). It’s a good thing that Jacqueline Law’s husband was able to support her when she fell sick with cancer, as god knows, the medical bills are astronomical. After getting married, Jacqueline and Kitty both lived a very modest lifestyle – you don’t see them decked in designer clothes from head to toe, when there’s photos of them in the media. So I wouldn’t put them in the same category of women as some very calculative actresses who’re always trying to get to know and seduce a very rich man into marrying them.
Monica Chan is an independent woman who’s been educated abroad and can still earn her own money. I agree with you that modern woman today should not be looking for a man to depend on financially. Both husband and wife can contribute to the family expenses, even if one earns more than the other. It’s more important that you fall in love with the person and not his money.
As for Vivian Chow, let’s hope that her faith in Joe Nieh will pay off. But I will laugh if Joe Nieh cheats on her again. What will she do then? Keep one eye close to ‘save face’ and pretend she is not aware that he is cheating on her? A lot of wives tend to keep up public appearances of a happy marriage even though deep down inside they know that their husbands are probably having a mistress outside.
@Felicity,
Yes, I know what you mean and know the Kitty and Jacqueline are not gold diggers. However, they married pretty late in their lives so they honestly got lucky that they married someone who was financially well off and had feelings for. As a women gets older, her options change and lessen. I don’t think you always marry someone with the same financial status as you. If I remember correctly, both Kitty and Jacqueline did not come from rich families.I think Kitty was even raised by her uncle because her parents could not afford to raise all of her siblings and her which is why she is so close to her late uncle. But anyways, who would not want to marry at least a decently financially stable guy so they do not have to work as hard?? I would not say it is wrong to do so, but that should not be all that you go for.
Glad that you know it is not like the old days anymore. Women and men need to work to make a living since usually one income is not enough, unless that guy makes big bucks or is from a well off family. It is definately more important to fall in love with the person, but sadly money and love seem to go together. However, if a women is more financially independant then the amount of money any guy has will be less important so she will be able to love the true person that he is, not how big his checking account is.
I know what you mean and hope that Vivian will not need to go through that since I think she could have done so much better than Joe. It is her choice, so good or bad she has to live with it.
@HeTieShou
“Women and men need to work to make a living since usually one income is not enough, unless that guy makes big bucks or is from a well off family. It is definately more important to fall in love with the person, but sadly money and love seem to go together. However, if a women is more financially independant then the amount of money any guy has will be less important so she will be able to love the true person that he is, not how big his checking account is.”
Very true! Which is why I think Ada Choi is smart to marry Max Zhong once she has decided to settled down and start a family in her late 30s. I’m sure Ada had other suitors (including the rich playboy types) but she chose to marry a mainland Chinese man from humble background, because seems he seems to be a very good father and reliable husband by all accounts. Max probably earns less than Ada as a kung fu chereographer and part time actor, but it’s not something that becomes an issue to them. Most important is they both have the same vision for their family and Max dotes on Ada and his daugthers. They’re such a happy family unit.
The problem with Monica Chan is she seeks out playboys to give her heart to, thinking it is true love when it is just a game for many of these rich tycoons. The con-artist she fell for is most definitely a very sleek smooth-talker who made Monica feel like a princess (damn, those Disney movie and the false fantasy they give to little girls!), twirled her around and made her feel giddy and seduced her into lending him money and then disappeared. Poor girl, but at her age, she’s a bit too old to be so naive over a man.
she should become a lawyer or a doctor and just ignore socializing so that she is not attacked by a gigolo or a malevolent fellow female – then and ONLY if she meets true love, she should marry – having money to fix your weak points and ignore social conventions is a fantasy worth having – not being a tai tai to a HK player
Xians murdered Jews as soon as they absconded with Jewish holy writings for the OLD Testament – the history of the Western world is all about killing Jews. How did these HK actresses not notice that when they were becoming biblified? How moral can they be or did they just want to purchase cleanliness/reincarnation?
She is very beautiful but her life is so sad. She lost a lot of money to Chu Ming.
He cheated her love and money thats why she is so sad.
I like her very much and so sad that she always felt for the wrong person.
she gave him money?????
Monica’s love life is very colourful as a rainbow after what she has gone thru’ I suggest she stays single that fit her more.
In general point of view,winning in a relationship does not mean something good,for this case is disaster. It is a blessing in disguise for Sharon Luk for back down in the relationship for the so-called ‘oil king’. If not, she will be the one being betrayed n hurt instead. As for Monica,is good to be able to stand up n pick up the pieces n move on. Better being single than to be in a bad relationship or bad marriage.
How did this ‘oil king’ PRETEND for so long around these Miss HKs etc/social circles? I don’t understand how he managed to fool them…. any ideas?
i am not sure but my Guess he was saying something like he invested all his cash flow in some huge projects so he doesn’t have any cash left and borrowed her or told her to pay first then he would pay back and blah blah you know.
*rolls eyes*
can’t even trust spouses anymore … what kinda world we living in huh?
Wa AAAaaaahhhh
I think she broke down over her lost money
Too bad for her. It’s not really an issue of getting married but finding somebody who’s dependable and respects her. On the bright side, at least she’s not married to a jerk.
yes but courtiers are good like that – English Kings even had men fighting over who would be the Royal Keeper of the Stool (samples).
she reminds me of melanie griffith in pix above
what do you mean? part German??
wow if that those were true, i feel bad for her. hopefully she will find true love soon.