SINGING SUPERSTAR Kenny Bee was no stranger to the high life. The entertainer, who once boasted he was the first Hong Kong star to drive a Lamborghini sports car, had his own recording studio, lived on the Peak and appeared to have boundless riches. When he married socialite Teresa Cheung Siu-wai in 1988, she wore a tailor-made gown from London, their guests quaffed champagne at a lavish reception in the Regent Hotel ballroom and the couple jetted off to Europe for their honeymoon. Cheung soon became as well known for her expensive tastes - ordering Chanel from Paris and showing off the latest Hermes Kelly and Birkin bags - as her husband was for his singing.
But after the now-divorced couple borrowed $154.5 million to invest in the property market during the boom years of the 1990s, they were left with spiralling debts when the bubble burst. In July, Bee applied for bankruptcy. After filing his petition, the star said with glib understatement: 'I'm not very good at handling money matters.'
The 49-year-old entertainer vowed to continue a more frugal lifestyle he adopted after splitting with Cheung three years ago and is reforming his former superband, the Wynners, to raise extra cash.
Cheung, meanwhile, is being sued by creditors for a share of the couple's $250 million debts. But the 39-year-old, who runs a boutique in Central, has refused to contemplate bankruptcy, pledging to work hard to pay off the debt, possibly by expanding her clothing line, Teresa, to the mainland.
But bankruptcy seems to follow her around. In July, businessman Edmund Chan, the man she left Bee for but also later split from, declared himself bankrupt.
Another bon vivante, playboy tycoon Louis Lo Siu-fai, can empathise with Bee. The one-time property magnate had his own yacht, Miracle, on which he partied and supposedly frolicked with Hong Kong's rich and beautiful set. As recently as March, when banks were closing in to recover debts of more than $100 million, 37-year-old Lo was hob-nobbing at Pershing Hall, near the Champs Elysees in Paris, which charges between $3,000 and $10,000 a night. In October, he was declared bankrupt after a judge granted a bankruptcy petition from HSBC.