Singapore singer Yumi Bai: Work commitments led to break-up with Hong Kong casino heir
Local singer Yumi Bai hints that work led to break-up with Hong Kong casino heir Mario Ho
There were scandalous rumours that Singaporean singer Yumi Bai was the cause of an acrimonious break-up earlier this month with her Hong Kong beau, casino empire heir Mario Ho.
Not my fault, said the 22-year-old in an exclusive e-mail interview with The New Paper.
Yumi, who is one-half of local Mandopop duo By2 with her twin sister Miko, had reportedly been dating Ho, 20, the son of Macau gambling kingpin Stanley Ho, since November last year.
Although the young couple have never publicly admitted to their relationship, it was an open secret in Hong Kong showbiz.
In October, Ho posted lovey-dovey pictures of himself and Yumi on his Facebook page.
One particular wefie showed the pair in matching couple T-shirts and customised red caps.
Ho's cap had the words "Always loyal to Yumi", while Yumi's cap said, "Always love Mario".
DUMPED
Just a month later, everything turned sour.
According to Hong Kong's Next Media, Yumiwas dumped by Ho following an exchange.
Yumi had been spotted at a club with Chinese actor Sun Zujun and Ho got angry because she had called the Ho family chauffeur to pick them up after a night of partying.
But in her interview with TNP, Yumi denied knowledge of the rumours.
"With regards to those rumours, I wasn't even aware of them at all," she said.
"Readers will believe whatever (is) written in front of them, but my sister and I know the truth."
She added: "If a relationship brought out the worst in you and doesn't better you as a person, it's not worth the time being together."
Ho, an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the third of five children by Stanley Ho's fourth wife, entrepreneur Angela Leong.
Yumi said she hopes to move on after the split and it appears that she has sworn off romance - for now.
"Miko and I are only attached to our work. That has always been our priority," she said.
"In the future, I would say that dating a fellow celebrity or entertainer would be most ideal, as he would be able to fully understand the nature of my work.
"It's extremely tiring for a couple to have misunderstandings about work."
While Yumi's love life has not been smooth-sailing, By2 are enjoying a career upswing. Last month, they scored a guest spot in K-pop rapper Jay Park's new music video, BO$$.
Miko said: "Jay and his crew are great friends of ours. The video was shot around the time when Yumi and I were having dance lessons in Los Angeles.
"Jay invited us to join in and it was a fun experience! We've never dabbled in the hip-hop genre, so it was refreshing for us."
Earlier this month, the girls, who are based in Beijing, returned to Singapore and held a private fan meet at myVillage mallin Serangoon Gardens.
The last time they got up close with local supporters was at an autograph session in 2010.
Miko said: "We were back home to visit our mum, relatives and friends. We decided that we should give our Singapore fans a surprise, too.
"They've waited too long to meet us and we don't want to disappoint them any more.
"On the day of our fan meet, we took many pictures, sang our new songs live and gave out lots of hugs.
It's so satisfying just to be able to see the huge smiles on their faces."
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