'I felt the impulse to drown myself' after 2010 scandal, says Jesseca Liu's ex Fan Chih-wei

Things got so bad for ex-Taiwanese idol Fan Chih-wei after his fall from grace that for a fleeting moment, he thought of ending his life. 

In an interview with China Times on Thursday (Sept 19), the 39-year-old said that people started treating him differently as they were upset with his behaviour towards ex-girlfriend, Taiwanese actress-singer Cyndi Wang.

For the uninitiated, Chih-wei and Cyndi dated in 2000 for six years before splitting. During an interview with Apple Daily then, Cyndi revealed that Chih-wei was far from the man of anyone's dreams. She claimed that he was flirty, sketchy and had "no backbone" to confess that he wanted to break things off.

However, what did him in and marked his descent into pop culture oblivion was when he released an infamous photo of the pair along with intimate details of their relationship on April Fools' Day of 2010. He revealed that he had been violent with Cyndi and was disappointed that he wasn't her first sexual partner.

Chih-wei, who incidentally dated Malaysian actress Jesseca Liu in 2008, admitted that life took a turn for the worse after he got flak for his actions. 

He told China Times that after the scandal, the street vendors he used to patronise in his neighbourhood of Danshui were not as friendly to him. The fruit seller who used to give him extra fruit shot him weird looks instead, while the ice cream man also stopped giving him an additional scoop.

"Without that extra scoop of ice cream, I felt the impulse to drown myself in the sea," he said.

As if that wasn't enough, he made headlines again in 2011 for allegedly physically abusing his then-girlfriend, the boss of a French cosmetics brand. 

As is wont with all disgraced celebrities, his career tanked and it was reported that he moved to China in search of greener pastures. He was said to have set up a media company with some friends but didn't make much progress despite trying for close to seven years, leaving him with little to no savings. 

The actor, who is now based in Taiwan, shared that for the past year, he has been living off his mother, who provided him with NT$20,000 (S$890).

He added: "My mother is willing to provide for my daily expenses but I can't possibly continue living like this."

Chih-wei was also in the news recently because he had let himself go, and though he's appeared to shed some weight in recent photos, it's still a far cry from his hunky, idol days.

The actor, who's currently single, said he hopes to make a comeback and will go wherever there is work.

When asked if he intends to lose weight, he replied: "I'm a professional actor and I can lose 6kg in 12 days. I've been doing this for the past 20 years for all of my shows."

bryanlim@asiaone.com