'Let people say what they like... We just want to be
happy'
LAST year, he raised eyebrows when news broke that he was dating
his personal assistant, who is less than half his age.
Now, local TV host and radio deejay Marcus Chin's girlfriend,
Miss Eileen Cheah, is four months pregnant.
The proud father-to-be confirmed the pregnancy (it's a girl!)
when asked about it at a press conference yesterday.
He took her to the press conference, for household products
brand, V. Care, where he was unveiled as its spokesman.
They even posed for pictures together.
Chin, 57, had behaved very differently earlier.
When The New Paper approached him and his 25-year-old girlfriend
for interviews in mid-February to ask them about the burgeoning
romance and the rumoured pregnancy, he was reserved and politely
turned us down.
Yesterday, Chin seemed bolder and a lot more comfortable at
opening up about his relationship with a girl 32 years younger.
And he had no problems with having Miss Cheah in the
limelight.
With a visible bulge in her tummy, the Malaysian-born lass
accompanied him throughout the product launch.
Although she declined to speak to us, she gamely posed for
pictures with her doting boyfriend.
A picture of domestic bliss, the soon-to-be-father revealed that
he was "extremely happy" to have finally fulfilled his ailing mum's
wish to see him have a kid of his own.
His 94-year-old mother, who suffers from slight dementia, had
been griping for a long time about his childless state, said
Chin.
"My mum was so elated after I told her the news (Miss Cheah's
pregnancy) that even without eating anything, she already felt
full. It is probably from too much happiness!" he added.
It is true love that they share, said Chin.
While he and Miss Cheah were talking about having kids one day,
he asked her: I'm so old, do you really want to have a baby with
me?"
Her response touched him immensely.
"Not only did she say "yes" without hesitating, she wrote it
down in black and white, so that both of us would remember that
particular moment," he said.
Chin had rocked the town last year with news of his divorce,
after 23 years of marriage.
He and his ex-wife, retired Taiwanese singer Ms Murong Ying, 53,
are now legally separated.
The couple do not have children.
In an interview last November with The New Paper, Ms Murong
shared with us the "beautiful beginning" of their relationship.
They were singing colleagues who subsequently became lovebirds.
After one-and-a-half years of dating, they got hitched in 1986.
Ms Murong could not be reached for her comments on Miss Cheah's
pregnancy at press time.
While Chin basks in his new-found happiness, he acknowledges
candidly that he has detractors ever since he went public with his
current relationship.
"Eileen's a young woman solely interested in my money, blah
blah, I've heard all that," he said with a look of resignation.
"If she was indeed only after my money, why would she want to
have a kid with me?"
Taking a serious tone, he explained that certain unique traits
in Miss Cheah helped ease any problems their age gap might have
thrown up.
"She might be young, but she doesn't like to go out and have fun
like her peers," said Chin.
"I guess I'm very fortunate in that aspect."
He added that she helps him in "doing paperwork and handling
accounts".
"If she was the "playing type", I guess we wouldn't have worked
out so well.
"Give her a computer and she'd be very happy to sit in front of
it for hours."
Asked if he is worried about not being able to keep up with his
little one when she's born, he said: "Actually, I don't feel old at
all.
"Age is a state of mind, I'm still very young at heart!"
Marriage is not on the cards for them, as Chin is still in the
midst of divorce proceedings with his ex-wife.
"There are still some details we have to work out before it's
finalised," he said.
He isn't worried about whether Miss Cheah's pregnancy will
complicate matters.
Even if it means paying a hefty alimony to his former
spouse.
"Things will work out fine in the end. That's what I believe,"
said Chin.
"I've been in situations where I needed money desperately and
money eventually appeared.
"So, don't worry, I won't die."
He also takes the derogatory "old cow eats young grass" label -
a literal translation of a Chinese colloquial phrase the media has
been using to refer to him and Miss Cheah - in his stride,
preferring to see the funny side of it.
Indeed, he is so comfortable with it that he didn't bat an
eyelid when print advertisements for health supplement and energy
booster Cool Man, of which is he is the spokesman, came out bearing
the tag line earlier this year.
Does it make him sound er, lustful?
"It's okay, they can write what they want, I don't mind," he
said, then proceeded to whip out his name card, which carried the
logo of a cow feeding on grass.
"Let people say what they like, at this age of mine, there is
nothing that can hurt my ego any more," said Chin.
"We just want to be happy."
