Pan Lingling and Huang Shinan are one of local showbiz’s most high-profile couples. But who knew they actually have another actress to thank for their love story?
Or at least, that’s what Chen Xiuhuan claims.
Sharing a throwback photo of herself and Shinan, 65, the 60-year-old Mediacorp actress revealed on Instagram that Shinan is “a childhood friend” she knew even before they entered showbiz.
“When I first met him, I actually thought he was a stalker, because he followed me all the way home!” wrote Xiuhuan.
“Only later did I realise… he actually lived in one of the HDB blocks near my home,” she laughed. “I completely misunderstood him!”
The two gradually became good friends, and Shinan eventually got to know Xiuhuan’s family as well.
“My family loved having a lively home and welcoming friends over,” she explained. “He came over so often that eventually, he was practically like family, always dropping by my house for a bowl of noodles.”
Xiuhuan later went for a filming audition and entered the entertainment industry.
“A few years later, he was actually ‘influenced’ by me and followed me into the same industry,” she wrote.
Both Xiuhuan and Shinan eventually enrolled in the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation’s (SBC) drama training course in 1984.
Shinan also kept Xiuhuan updated about his love life.
“One day, I was filming a period drama in the middle of nowhere, and he even made the trip to the set in the middle of the night just to tell me: ‘I really like a girl,'” she recalled.
“The moment I heard who she was, I immediately told him: ‘This girl is really beautiful, tall, and kind. She’s a wonderful girl.'”
It turns out Xiuhuan had actually met the “girl” before at an actors’ training class.
“So, he began pursuing her and eventually won the girl of his dreams!” Xiuhuan wrote, before revealing who the mystery woman was.
“Pan Lingling, don’t you think you should thank me?” she wrote, tagging Lingling.
Lingling and Shinan met in 1987 and married in 1996. They have two sons, Beckham, 27, and Kynaston, 24.
According to Xiuhuan, what she had just revealed was a secret that even Lingling did not know about.
“From knowing each other since childhood, to entering the entertainment industry together, and now being able to witness each other’s lives all these years later,” Xiuhuan wrote.
“Thank you, Shi Nan and Ling Ling, for your friendship all these years. I have always treasured it.”