The Malay Mail Online – 10 hours agoRELATED CONTENT
- Tycoon Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng (second right) is seen at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, …
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 ― Tycoon Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng told the High Court here today that his estranged wife, a former beauty queen now seeking half his fortune, is a homemaker who has never worked in her life.
Khoo, chairman of international fashion brand Laura Ashley, was testifying at the hearing that will decide the jurisdiction of his billion-ringgit divorce dispute with Pauline Chai.
“She’s always been a housewife. She’s never worked in her life,” Khoo said the court.
The 75-year-old retail and hotel magnate said he and 68-year-old Chai, who is Miss Malaysia 1969, married in 1970.
Khoo, who arrived at the courthouse with three bodyguards, also claimed that God healed him from a stroke on the same day it struck him in 2008 and described himself as a “very committed” Christian.
“On the same day, I prayed very hard and I was healed,” he said softly.
He added that Chai was in Canada at the time he suffered the stroke and that she arrived in Kuala Lumpur a few days later.
Khoo said Chai and their children moved from Malaysia to Australia in 1980, then subsequently to Canada, adding that he bought Rossway, the family home in Hertfordshire, England, in 1998.
An English court ruled earlier on October 17 that England was the more appropriate forum for the case to be heard.
Chai is seeking to the divorce to be decided by the English courts, where she stands to gain up to half of Khoo’s fortune.
Khoo, however, is applying to have the case heard in Malaysia, arguing that they were married in Malaysia where he also maintains his official residence. Khoo would risk losing less of his wealth if the trial is held here.
Khoo’s lawyer Datuk Dr Cyrus Das, however, argued today that the London court decision did not bind the Malaysian courts “in any way”.
