Retired celebrity fashion designer Eddie Lau Pui-kei found out he had been left two flats in Anita Mui Yim-fong's will only when he was contacted after the singer's death, a probate court heard yesterday.
The starlet left him a flat in Happy Valley and another in London in a will that put her multimillion-dollar assets in the hands of a trust being challenged by her elderly mother.
'We were very close. She was my younger sister,' said the 57-year-old designer, one of the pall-bearers at her funeral on January 12, 2004.
Lau wept as a 20-minute video he provided to the court was played showing Mui speaking of her 20-odd-year bond with the fashion designer at the launch of his website in 2000.
Mui described the fashion designer, who created all her iconic concert images, as 'my family' and 'a magician', adding: 'He turned me from an ugly ducking into an artist with character ... I know he loved me.'
She ended the video in tears, thanking him for his love and his coaching.
Lau said that after he finished work for her final concert in November 2003, Mui asked him for a copy of his identity card. He handed it over reluctantly after her repeated pleas. But he knew nothing about the will until he was contacted by the trust.