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My husband left me to become a monk

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Lee Wing-Sze

In many people's eyes, my situation would seem miserable: my husband has left to become a monk, and my two daughters live overseas, leaving me on my own. But I've learned to transform what I'm missing into something I'm grateful for.

I met my husband, Alain Yip Tsing-lam, through Louie Castro, a good friend and former colleague on TVB's variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight. Alain was the photographer for Louie's albums, and Louie introduced us at a gathering.

We used to hang out as a group, and sometimes Alain would ask us to model for him.

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At that time, I was driving a second-hand Toyota. Alain, a car aficionado, thought the tyres were bad and took me to a mechanic's shop. We went to dinner after that. He asked me out again, and that was how we started.

We were an affectionate couple, together all the time. He was a very romantic person, but I'm more realistic. In our first year together, he took a full-page ad in a newspaper to wish me happy birthday. When he proposed, I was doing a radio programme. He called in and asked me on-air to marry him.

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We opened a bridal photography studio, Modern Classic, in 1986, the year we got married. After getting pregnant unexpectedly, I quit my television job and started to focus on our business. Little problems emerged: inevitable obstacles at work, plus trivial things in daily life, brought friction between us.

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