Under-fire singer Sun Ho
hits headlines again -- this time in her adopted city of Los
Angeles. What report said
Under-fire Singaporean pop singer Sun Ho, 40, has made the
headlines again — this time in her adopted hometown of Los
Angeles.
The wife of City
Harvest Church founder and
Reverend Kong Hee,– who
are both helping police in a major investigation into the alleged
misuse of church funds — is the subject of a blog post entitled
“Singapore’s City Harvest Church
Controversy Comes to the Hollywood Hills” on the
LAWeekly Blogs website.
The short, 250-word post dated 22nd June is filed under the
“Crime” category and comes with an old dated photo of Sun Ho.
Written by Patrick Range McDonald, the post starts off
with, “Unbeknown to many Hollywood Hills residents, a major,
developing controversy involving a wealthy Singapore minister and
his widely influential mega-church has come to their posh
neighborhood.”
It further goes on to call the investigation a “huge public
relations gaffe for the embattled Hee and City Harvest Church”.
On its website, LAWeekly Blogs calls itself the “definitive
source of daily information for news, music, movies, restaurants,
and the arts in Los Angeles.” It’s unclear what is the website’s
total readership.
Sun Ho is the subject of a blog post on the LAWeekly
Blogs website.
Hollywood Hills is the private, exclusive estate
in Los Angeles where Ho is currently based.
An earlier The New Paper report said that
the mansion Ho has been staying at for the past
year costs S$28,000-a-month to
rent. Neighbours include famous Hollywood
celebrities such as Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky, “Ugly Betty” star
America Ferrera and British singer Leona Lewis. Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie are also said to own a property in the
vicinity.
According to the same paper, the mansion is
listed for sale at S$7.7 million. It’s reported that Ho
lives there with her 5-year-old son, Dayan, an assistant, a nanny
and her relatives.
Ho’s estate stands on 29,000 sq ft of land or about a third
of a football field. It’s made up of a main house, three
self-contained structures, with quarters for a butler, nanny and
maid. Not only does it boast a swimming pool, a sundeck and a
two-car garage, its driveway still has space for another 9
cars.
The total built-up area of the estate is 6,766 sq ft or about
the size of 5 five-room HDB flats, while the 4,135 sq ft main house
has four bedrooms.
The paper also said the housing agent in charge of the
property described Kong Hee’s wife as “Singapore’s top
singer and entertainer” while a neighbour said she was very
“sophisticated and seems traditional” as she often hosts gatherings
during special occasions like Chinese New Year.
Back in Singapore, the couple also made some big property
moves through the years.
They started off in a five-room HDB flat in Tampines
which was purchased at S$127,000 before selling it for S$420,000.
They then moved to a unit at Horizon Towers costing S$1 million in
River Valley before selling it off to buy a new apartment at The
Suites at Central on Devonshire Road, said to be worth about S$2.6
million.
Ho returned to Singapore last Monday to assist the
Commercial Affairs Department
(CAD) in an investigation into alleged misuse of church
funds. She was said to have been grilled by police for more than
eight hours.
A majority of Yahoo! Singapore users have since questioned if
the plush lifestyle enjoyed by the couple could be in part
funded by the donations from City Harvest Church members and
indeed, if such a lifestyle by the church co-founders should even
be condoned.
Yahoo! Fit-to-Post user Tony commented, “If the
lifestyle she is living in now is as a result of her fame and
success from her recordings, then it is her own biz (sic) on how
she spends it. But if it is out of the givings of the church
in some form or other, then it is totally unacceptable. Also if she
is the pastor’s wife, she should be fully aware of the implications
of her behaviour, dressing and lifestyles. If you really believe in
the Lord, then you above all (being a pastor and a pastor’s wife)
should know that this is not what as Christians we strive for in
this earthly world as this is temporary.”
Another user OMG said, “The pastor and his wife
ought to step down from CHC….Just imagine, they ask their followers
to downgrade from 5-room flat to 3-room flat while they themselves
upgrade from flat to luxury apartment. This is double
standards.”
Yet others have defended Sun Ho saying that as a singer
who’s had a string of No. 1 dance hits in the US, she should be
entitled to her rewards.
FTP user Jackson said, “Stop all nonsense! Sun Ho is a
singer and most singers earn big bucks…why can’t she live a lavish
lifestyle?”
Another user Doe agreed, saying “So she is a celebrity
in the USA, it’s normal. What do you expect? Tell me
one high-profile celebrity in the US that earns peanuts.”
