Gregory and Shirley Share Romantic Date Dispelling Rumours of a Split

Gregory Lee and Shirley Yeung have been dating for four years and have been dogged by a string of negative press, with a tabloid magazine suggesting yesterday that Shirley has split up with Gregory after getting fed up of having to support him and the emergence of Steven Ma as a third party in their relationship. In response to this, Gregory says angrily: "They make me seem worse than a prostitute. Do they have to leave me jobless before they give up?" Although Gregory did not directly clarify the situation with Shirley, the couple were spotted yesterday sharing a romantic dinner.

Since the couple started dating, as Gregory is not as popular as his girlfriend, this has fuelled rumours that he is living off her income and that she is paying for his mortgage payments. This has led to Gregory experiencing insults from people when he goes out. Earlier the two of them decided to lower the profile on their relationship in the hope of the focus returning to their exaggerated the story, suggesting that Shirley had dumped Gregory because she wwork, but they were still hounded by the press and when Shirley refused to talk about Gregory, this raises suspicions over whether they had split up. Some reports then as tired of paying for him and branding him as a 'cheap male'.

In response to this unpleasant title, Gregory was very frustrated in a telephone interview yesterday: "I am really very angry this time. I don't mind them copying others saying we have split up, but they don't need to bring down my reputation to the ground, saying I am living off a woman and causing me to be scolded on the street. It is very hard to bear and I just want to be able to get on with my work. Now they are even calling me a 'cheap male' and making me sound worse than a prostitute. Then they say that I am in opposition with TVB, do they want to leave me without a job before they will let me go?"

As for Shirley, she has just returned to Hong Kong after her trip to Europe and at first, she did not want to say too much about the reports, just saying: "I don't want to comment on what is not true." but she could not help but support her boyfriend, saying: "We have not split up at all, we each have our own incomes and are financially independent. No-one is depending on the other, I hope that this will be the last time I talk about our relationship."

Gregory's mother Sze Ming was very upset at the names being given to her son and she felt that as a mother, then to see your son insulted in this way is very painful. She says: "I let go of my marriage and worked hard to raise my sons. I have not worked for a year now and the family is supported entirely by Gregory. His income is limited and at first when he found out I had no work, he told me to relax and enjoy the break. He is a good son and in making him so bad, are they out to destroy my family? My son will always be a good son and he will always treat his family and girlfriend with 100%."

As Gregory's father, Lee Ka Ding is also very irate at the slurs against his son. He says: "They are very loving and have not split up. The magazines are ridiculous and if I see a ghost, I am afraid for a moment, but when I see the reporters, I am even more scared. There has to be a bottom line when it comes to insults, but the government is powerless and cannot protect artistes."

Innocently pulled into the reports as the third party in the relationship, Steven feels that the magazine is making up wild stories and they are all fictional. He insists that after filming with Shirley in "A Change of Destiny", they have not been in proper contact now for four months. He admits that he does look out for this 'little sister', but their conversation is purely around their work and they never talk about relationships, so to suggest that Steven was co-ercing Shirley into splitting up with Gregory is majorly pointless. He has no plans to call Gregory to explain anything as he says: "If he believes that, then he is too gullible."

Gregory is a dedicated son and boyfriend and although he is angry about the reports, he is still putting his mother and girlfriend first. Yesterday evening, he and his twin brother Wing Hon joined their mother shopping in Festival Walk and they he went to IFC to meet Shirley for dinner. It would seem that this pair of 'troubled lovers' are braving the storm together and appearing even more loving than ever.