Li Yapeng, 51, now sells tea to repay his debt. Photo: Li Yapeng/Weibo
Former Chinese actor Li Yapeng, the ex-husband of Hong Kong superstar Faye Wong, recently admitted to being more than 40mil yuan (RM25.8mil) in debt, China Press reported.
In a Weibo post on April 28, Li said that he had failed to make timely repayments and is currently being pressed by the court to do so.
The 51-year-old also added that he still owed wages to many of his longtime workers, whom he retrenched last year.
"My company has been struggling for the past few years (due to the debt). For 10 years, I have not retrenched any employees, but started doing so last year.
"About 200 people have been laid off," he said, adding that this is the "darkest moment" in his life.
In his statement, Li also expressed gratitude towards his staff who allowed him to repay his debt bit by bit.
"Repaying my debts and owning up to my mistakes is the right thing to do," he said.
On April 29, Li shared in a livestream that he was still subjected to "high-level consumption restrictions" by the court despite already settling on a repayment schedule with his creditors.
This prevented him from taking a plane back to Beijing from Guangxi airport despite his assistant already purchasing first-class plane tickets.
Lamenting that the restrictions enforced on him were "too serious", the Laughing In The Wind star then took a long-distance train back to Beijing.
Despite the challenges, Li said that he will remain optimistic and will try to face the situation calmly. He also said that he will take this as a lesson and not repeat the same mistake in the future.
In 2012, the actor-turned businessman splurged 3.5bil yuan (RM2.6bil) to build a snow-capped art town through his company, Lijiang Snow Mountain Investment.
However, he was forced to sell his land stake to another developer in 2015 after selling only about 30 villas in its first two years.
Li has since been selling tea to repay his debt. It is understood that he is currently living a frugal lifestyle with his model wife Haiha Jinxi and daughter, Li Xia.
