Billionaire Richard Li, 54, Rumoured To Dating Malaysian Actress Serene Lim, 25, After Breaking Up With His 28-Year-Old Girlfriend

Update (Jul 17): In an email to 8days.sg, Maria Dan, the president of Noble Castle Asia, clarified that the rumours of Serene Lim dating Richard Li are false. She said, “[Serene] is focusing on her work and doesn’t have time to date. I’ve been with her every day since she joined the company and she’s never even met Mr Li. I don’t know how [the dating rumours] even started.”

Hongkong billionaire Richard Li’s love life has been tabloid fodder for years.

Richard, whose dad is Hongkong's richest man Li Ka-shing, famously dated actress Isabella Leong, with whom he has three sons. Though there was talk that he would settle down with her, they eventually broke up in 2011 and Isabella never got to walk down the aisle with the businessman.

In 2015, he started dating Miss Hong Kong 2015 second runner-up, Karmen Kwok, who is 26 years his junior.

Many were surprised when they found out about the relationship, mainly because they considered Karmen “plain-looking”, at least compared to Isabella.

In February, Karmen had shared pics of herself in wedding dresses, which led to speculation that she and Richard are getting married.

But now, there are rumours that Richard and Karmen have called it quits and it all started when netizens realised that she’s not signed to his new talent agency Noble Castle Asia.

The company was established in January under the Pacific Century Group, of which Richard is the chairman. Karmen wasn't listed as one of the agency's artistes, which netizens found suspect, especially if she's dating the boss.

She also posted a cryptic update on IG last month which read, The world is really simple [but] adults are complicated. So it's best to keep one eye closed to maintain that last bit of childlike innocence. Netizens took this to mean that she and Richard have broken up.

If rumours are to be believed, Richard is now seeing 25-year-old Malaysian actress Serene Lim, who, you guessed it, is signed to his company.

It's said that Serene, who came in second in Miss Chinese International 2017, was introduced to Richard by Michelle Yeoh.

She joined TVB in 2018 and acted in a handful of dramas, including Line Walker: Bull Fight, before quitting late last year. At that time, she revealed that she had suffered from bulimia and that she took a year to recover from the disorder. According to the actress, she had trouble dealing with the stress of working in Hongkong and would purge her food in order to stay slim.

After leaving TVB, Serene moved back to Malaysia to spend time with her family amidst the worsening COVID-19 pandemic situation.

In March this year, it was announced that she was the first actress to be signed under Noble Castle Asia. Rumours swirled that Richard had set up the agency just for her.

More eyebrows were raised when it was revealed that Chinese actress Tang Wei’s former manager had taken her under her wing. Netizens wondered why a rookie was being managed by a top-tier manager, and rumours claimed that she's receiving special treatment because of her relationship with Richard.

Neither Serene nor Richard have responded to the dating rumours at press time.

Photos: PBE Media