A flamboyant Hong Kong tycoon has placed full-page adverts in local media to announce that he has separated from a girlfriend.
Joseph Lau is the 65th richest man in the world with a net worth of $12.6 billion (£10 billion), according to Forbes.
But in front-page announcements in several newspapers he told former lover Yvonne Lui that she will not get any more than the £200 million that she has already received from him as he announced the pair had split in 2014.
“Ms Lui has accumulated considerable wealth, and is now a very wealthy woman,” Mr Lau’s statement said. “She can maintain a luxurious lifestyle by herself without my financial support.”
The 65-year-old retail billionaire met Mrs Lui in 2001 at a Luis Vuitton store in London when the former beauty pageant contestant was studying for a PhD degree in chemical engineering at King’s College.
#HongKong billionaire Joseph Lau has a full-page ad on his break-up w/ ex-gf in 2014 and the fact he had made her rich w/ HK$2b assets pic.twitter.com/qnqC94UjQu
— Fion Li (@fion_li) November 15, 2016
The pair had two children together but they never married. It appears that they remained in a relationship until 2014, despite Mr Lau being linked to a string of women in recent years.
The tycoon’s current lover is Kimbie Chan, a former assistant.
Mr Lau said he made the announcement in response to “untrue reports” about his relationship with 37-year-old Ms Lui.
Rumours of a separation had been circulating since August.
The flamboyant tycoon made headlines last November when he spent a record £32 million on a flawless “Blue Moon” diamond and renamed to honour his seven year-old daughter, one of the two children he had with Ms Chan.
The “Blue Moon of Josephine” diamond is said to be among the largest known vivid blue diamonds.
He also owns one of the world’s best collection of fine wines which numbers 10,000 bottles, and a fleet of jets.
Mr Lau was handed a five-year jail term in 2014 when he was found guilty with a business partner of corruption and money laundering over a land deal in Macau. However, he will not have to serve the sentence unless he enters the former Portuguese colony.
