MURKY PAST EMERGES, BITTER ‘STOLEN CHILD’ CASE SIMMERS, PALACE FOR A ‘PRINCESS’
Bubu agrees to meet love child
The husband of television comic Sudarat “Tukky” Butprom has agreed to meet an unwanted child who has emerged from his past — as long as he doesn’t bring his mother with him.
Kamthorn “Bubu” Phonamkam, who owns a seafood restaurant and wellknown tattoo outlet in Khao San Road, was forced to admit he has a son by his former teen lover, Chanitha “Neung” Suweeranuwat, who is now 34, after mother and child made a public appeal to the media.
Neung and her son, God, 17, have travelled to Bangkok from their native Chumphon province in the hope of meeting Bubu, after the boy tried contacting him over New Year without success.
God says he wants to meet and hug his dad for the first time. Over New Year, when God left a message on Bubu’s Facebook asking for money, his father blocked him.
Bubu started sending Neung a small amount of child support five years ago after her younger brother happened to meet his manager.
Through his manager, Bubu agreed to send the boy’s mother a mere 3,000 baht a month, despite enjoying a life of luxury with well-known comedian Tukky in Bangkok.
Neung now has a new husband, who raises God as his own child. However, she kept news of the boy’s real father from him until five years ago when he applied for a Thai ID card and found out his dad’s name did not match the one on his birth record.
When God turned 17 in January he reached out to his father on social media. God says he introduced himself as Bubu’s son and the pair chatted half a dozen times. However, eventually Bubu blocked him.
He admits he would like Bubu to increase the amount of child support he sends to 5,000 a month, as he wants to carry on his studies. God was forced to leave school before Mathayom 3 to help his mother sell goods in front of a local prison in Chumphon.
Despite the family’s financial difficulties, last year he managed to complete Mathayom 6 and would now like to be a photographer.
Neung said she and Bubu met in Bangkok when she was just 17. She was living with a relative at a lathe factory and when she met Bubu they moved into a rented place. Two months after she gave birth to God, Bubu left home in search of work to boost the young family’s income. He never returned, nor sent any money. She has rarely met or spoken to him since.
Since mother and son went public with their plight, Bubu’s manager had called saying Bubu was prepared to meet God, but did not want to see his mother. In a message to her former husband, conveyed in a television interview, Neung said: “When we were together, it came from love ... but now, what am I to you? What is your son to you? Why do I have to give interviews to every media outlet in town? I want you to come out and talk, that’s it. Then I will go back to where I came from.”
Neung said she did not want Bubu or Tukky to argue or break up over the revelation he had a secret son. While admitting she was in debt, she said she had raised the boy for years without complaint.
“I am asking society for a place to stand. I don’t want people thinking I am trying to make easy money from him,” she said.
Bubu admitted the boy is his and said he also goes halves with Neung on incidental expenses such as hospital and school bills.
“I have never missed a payment and Tukky has known from the outset about my past,” he insisted.
God said he is not upset his father lives the high life but sends him little. “Everyone has to stand on his own feet. I am happy for him, if anything. But right now I would like to carry on studying,” he said.
Referring to social media reaction to the saga, God said he was sorry it has turned out badly for Bubu, with netizens attacking him for being a lousy dad.
Neung, meanwhile, said while 3,000 baht might look like a meagre sum to some, she thinks it has value, especially on those days when she has run out.
Tukky and Bubu married on Christmas Day last year, sealing a union which began 13 years ago. Last year, when shouting a meal for children at the Rajvithi Home for Girls, Bubu said he would like to support an adopted child one day, apparently missing the irony he already has a child whom he barely helps.
Tukky said she supports whatever decision her husband makes. No word was to hand on when father and son plan to meet.
Porkaew reunited with daughter
Award-winning cake designer and cooking instructor Malika “Porkaew” Rianroo has been reunited with her eldest daughter, after a court intervened in a bitter “stolen child” custody dispute with her former husband.
The Central Juvenile and Family Court awarded her temporary custody of Nong Trin, aged four, after the two sides met for an all-day hearing last week.
Her ex-husband Suvicha Leenutaphong brought along Nong Trin after taking her on a dinner outing three weeks ago and refusing to return her as arranged. After Porkaew filed a police complaint claiming he had stolen her, the court posted an order on the gate of his palatial home telling him to return the child or risk arrest.
Mr Suvicha’s hi-so family runs a Bangkok car dealership. His elder sister has campaigned on social media to let them keep the child, showing Trin living the life of luxury but crying when she is told she has to go back to mum.
Mr Suvicha, meanwhile, has filed court papers seeking sole custody of the couple’s two children, claiming Porkaew is an unfit mother. They also have a child aged 18 months.
The court, which has called both sides back again on May 9 to hear Mr Suvicha’s custody claim, agreed to let both parents look after the child, but told them to keep the terms secret, and stop attacking each other on social media. The case continues.
Kueng’s father builds lavish home
Actress Janie Tienphosuwan denies her relationship with her “close friend”, hi-so businessman Chalermchai “Kueng” Mahagitsiri, is on the wane, despite the pair appearing less often in social media.
Earlier, Kueng’s millionaire father declared he was building a lavish marital home for his son in the hope he will tie the knot soon, though he didn’t mention any names.
Business magnate Prayudh Mahagitsiri, also a former deputy leader of the defunct Thai Rak Thai party, posted images on social media last week of workers putting up the marital home in Sathon. Property prices in the area had leapt, he said, citing the value of high-profile sites such as the British and Australian embassies and Central Chidlom.
“As for myself, I am building a home on a six-rai site in the Sathon Road area for my son, likely to be finished by August next year, after a Chinese fortune teller predicted Kueng would marry next year. I hope it’s the case. Construction is coming along nicely, as you can see,” he said.
The Manager/ASTV newspaper said that, based on the prices quoted by Mr Prayudh, the value of the land alone would be worth 4.8 billion baht.
Janie, meanwhile, asked about persistent rumours the pair are cooling on their two-year relationship, said nothing had changed.
“Everything’s the same. We don’t upload pictures to Instagram as much any more because I want our private moments to remain private. If we have time, we meet. I view these rumours as trifling things, they don’t upset me or throw me off course,” she said.