Actress Ting Pei ‘never’ planned to wed Bruce Lee
HONG KONG: Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei has disclosed that she had never planned to become Bruce Lee’s wife.
In 1973, Bruce Lee had died in her home under puzzling circumstances.
Ting Pei, the sex siren of the 1970s, has spoken about her relationship on a Radio Hong Kong interview.
When talking about Bruce Lee, she became tearful.
Despite the publication of lurid details of their alleged affair, Ting Pei maintained: “I don’t like to think about Bruce Lee. Besides, my mother did not like him too much either. I have never thought of becoming his wife.”
However, she admitted that she gained strength from listening to the tape that Bruce Lee had given her.
Following Bruce Lee’s death, Ting Pei had reportedly told newsmen that Bruce Lee and moviemaker Raymond Chow Man Wai of Golden Harvest had been discussing the script for Game of Death at her home.
Later, Bruce came down with a headache, and she let him lie down on the bed before giving him a single tablet of Equagesic, a strong aspirin-based drug.
Chow then went to pick up a friend. Bruce went to sleep. When a frantic Ting Pei could not wake him up for a dinner appointment with Chow, she called an ambulance.
Rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Bruce was pronounced dead on arrival.
Death was apparently caused by an allergic reaction that resulted in swelling of the brain.
There was no visible external injury.
However, according to autopsy reports, his brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grammes.
Bruce was 32. The only substance found during the autopsy was Equagesic.
In 2005, Chow stated in an interview that Bruce had died from an allergic reaction to the muscle relaxant (meprobamate) in Equagesic, which he described as a common ingredient in painkillers.
I don’t like to think about Bruce Lee. Besides, my mother did not like him too much either. I have never thought of becoming his wife. Betty Ting Pei, former sex siren
The coroner described his passing as “death by misadventure.”
After Bruce’s death, Ting Pei appeared in several other Hong Kong movies, including the Hui Brothers’ comedy, Games Gamblers Play (1974) which broke box office records.
She subsequently married Charles Heung, the head of Win’s Film Co., but the marriage did not last.
In 1985, she retired from show business and reportedly became a Buddhist nun after appearing in her last movie, My Name Ain’t Suzie.