Theresa Lee Yee-hung, 38, has the same sweet smile as the day she was second runner-up in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant in 1994. Now the mother of a 3?-year-old boy, Lee says showbiz drove her to the brink of divorce and suicide.
'I had no idea how it all happened, it was probably at one of the most lucrative times in my life. I had a beautiful house, a ski resort, a Porsche parked in the drive. I had just finished working on one of my highest paying jobs. I could see the washbasin from my bed but I physically couldn't get up and go and brush my teeth. I would lie there and cry for hours,' she recalls.
'I just felt I didn't want to be in this world any more. I thought I had done all I had to do here and people didn't need me any more. It was like a sickness. I wanted to commit suicide. It was very scary.'
It was Lee's husband, Corey Solomonson, who pulled her back from the brink of mental breakdown. 'He never left my side even when I was telling him: 'I want a divorce, I want you to get out of my life.' And at that point, you can either choose to get better or not.'
Through support from her husband, counselling sessions, a healthy diet and medication, Lee has recovered. 'I think I am blessed. I know some people have gone through it for years or decades and still haven't found how to heal themselves. It can be real torture. My bad times were over in a matter of months. And now I have survived it, I want to talk about it to let people know there is a way out.'
Looking back, Lee realised it was because she put too high an expectation on herself. 'I was worried all the time that I wasn't good enough, or I wasn't progressing at the pace I wanted. Why am I not Tom Cruise, not Chow Yun-fat, not Michelle Yeoh? But that's not really what it's all about.'