Michael Tao Denies Ever Helping Wayne Lai Pay For His Home; Says The Latter “Has Never Been Poor”

Hongkong actors and long-time pals Michael Tao, 58, and Wayne Lai, 57, first got close while working together on the 2000 ATV drama, Showbiz Tycoon.

Their bromance first came to light in 2017 when Wayne publicly thanked Michael during an interview, revealing that the latter had given him a lot of support during his early days in showbiz.

According to Wayne, he once faced serious financial difficulties as he needed to keep up with payments for his new home.

At that point, Michael had an upcoming performance in China.

Michael and Wayne during a 2012 interview

Recounting the conversation he had with Michael, Wayne said: “He told me: ‘Wayne, come and help me with a portion of the performance, I’ll give you a fee’. Later, I found out that the money he gave me was actually taken from his own pay.”

Wayne added that even though the incident happened a while back, he still remembers it clearly.

However, during a recent YouTube interview, Michael said that the entire thing “never happened”.

“Wayne has never been poor, he has always had a lot of money to spend,” laughed Michael.

Bros for life

Michael then cleared things up, saying: “It just so happened that I was working with him then, and everything went very smoothly. We were filming Showbiz Tycoon then, and the show had around 60 episodes. We filmed for eight to nine months, and I was with him every day! I spent more time with him than I did with my family. We had a good relationship, and loads of things to talk about.”

Michael went on to explain that he’d just started accepting requests for commercial performances then.

Wayne during a recent performance

“It was common to just show up and sing a song or two, to earn a bit of money. But I missed [Wayne], so I asked him if he was interested to join in. He asked if he really could, and I agreed! I told him: ‘Why don’t we do it this way, I’ll give you half of my fee, and we’ll go there and have fun. And that’s what happened! It’s not like what was mentioned in the interview. Wayne’s very rich, don’t act as if he’s poor! There’s no such thing like that,” he said.

Michael also praised Wayne for being a loyal friend.

“I feel that he’s someone who places great importance on friendships. He really still remembers that incident [till today],” Michael said.

Photos: on.cc, Wayne Lai/Instagram, Michael Tao/Weibo