ToomTam's Lao fancy, Pop sees a shrink, Eve hopes to wed Sek

His head wasn’t turned

YingYing, ToomTam

Actor Yutthana “ToomTam” Puangklang insists he was not taken by the fancies of a Lao actress to break up his three-year relationship with actress and soulmate Sarucha “Yingying” Pedrode.

ToomTam and his Lao co-star in the GMM25 TV soap, Dok Khun Siang Kaen, Thidalat “Louknum” Vongsili, have taken a hammering on social media after leaked images emerged of the pair kissing in a nature setting.

ToomTam, Louknum

The images appeared on Feb 21, two days after, oddly enough, Louknum posted images of herself making merit with her businessman boyfriend, also from Laos, who in a fit of pique since seeing Louknum’s kiss pics has stripped her images from his Facebook account.

ToomTam denied Louknum, the 2011 Miss Laos, had acted as a third hand breaking up his relationship with Yingying even before the pictures emerged. 

When the leaked images appeared to seal his fate, he went before the media a second time, again insisting he and Louknum, who makes sporadic visits here to film catch-up scenes for the soap before heading home again where she is making a movie, was just a close friend.

However, he admitted inviting her out for a coffee and taking her to the airport for her most recent visit home, saying work on set ended early for the day. He insisted if had really wanted to keep their liaison a secret he would never have shown his face in such a public place.

For unfortunate Yingying, however, who says she never suspected a thing, the clincher was text messages she found earlier on her boyfriend’s phone. While she won’t go into detail about what he wrote to Louknum, she said it was enough to almost knock her over in shock.

“I am lucky I was with friends at the time, as they helped me keep my cool and pull me through it,” she told the media last week, adding she has cried constantly since ToomTam called off their relationship and lost 6kg in the past month.

“There were no signs of anything wrong, and normally I do not check his phone but when I did, I dissolved in tears. I asked if they had anything going on and ToomTam insisted they were just pee nong (friends),” she said.

“I couldn’t be alone at first, so shocked was I after seeing the text messages. We shared many good times and had started laying plans for the future,” she added.

No Thai drama is complete without a family element, in this case helpfully provided by ToomTam’s father who suggested that despite Yingying’s rosy claims, all things were not well between her son and the actress. 

In a series of social media posts supposedly about his family tending cassava, his father Pradit said some people were taken in by cassava’s outward appearance, but after tending the crop for three years, he knew better.

“Some people think it must be useful, and looks cute, but those who really know cassava will know that when it is goes off it really stinks, so much so that no one wants to draw close,” he wrote.

“Never mind. These are but the final stages. We have been worn out, tired of heart because ever since we have known cassava our family has made losses. We’ve had enough in this lifetime, and let’s hope we don’t have to meet it again in the next life,” he added.

One bitchy report suggested Mr Pradit was fed-up because Yingying had taken to leaving her underwear around the house, forcing ToomTam’s father to wash it himself, a claim she promptly denied.

Louknum

As far as ToomTam is concerned, he claims he asked to quit with Yingying because they fell out of love. “It was the culmination of problems building up over a long time, and I didn’t want to trick people into thinking we were still in love. I unfollowed her on social media first because I couldn’t stand seeing her move on in life.

“We haven’t spoken for about a month and would like to meet to explain what happened and hang on to some vestiges of the relationship as there are still some good feelings there after three years together,” he said. He said he was working seven days a week and did not have much time to give to Yingying, a sensitive point with her.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Louknum, who has said nothing since the leaked kiss pics emerged, said she was preparing to clear the air with the media as soon as her Laos movie shooting schedule allows. She knew nothing about claims that Louknum’s Lao boyfriend had removed her pictures from his FB account after seeing her kiss another man.

Still broken up by love

Singer Pongkul “Pop” Suebsueng and his new wife are doing no better since he revealed to his betrothed on her wedding day that he had been seeing someone else in an elaborate deception going back 10 years, says a close friend.

Actress and model Carissa “Ploy” Springett, the only industry friend to attend Pop’s shotgun wedding to teacher Warasinee “Pla” Bunprasert in Nakhon Nayok this month, said the two were still struggling in the aftermath of Pop’s admission that he had led a double life romantically and was not the man she thought he was.

Ploy

Pop was forced to come forward after alert netizens noticed that Pop’s bride was not the same woman he was seen on social media dining with at a romantic Valentine’s Day meal shortly before, and with whom he has gone into business running a noodle eatery.

He blamed his own cowardice for the elaborate deception is which he saw the two women at once for 10 years, and still hadn’t come clean to either about his double life by the time of his wedding. The other woman, known as Bow Bora on Facebook, came forward later to say she had also entertained hopes they would one day marry.

Pop has broken into tears while performing in concert since the drama, and told reporters that he seeing a psychiatrist to help him through his ordeal. Ploy, meanwhile, a relative of both Pop and Pla from their shared home province of Prachin Buri, said she too was shocked by the news, but admitted Pop was not the kind of man with whom you can say anything you want.

“But even if he wasn’t like that, it’s difficult to talk too much about such things, you end up a bit like a dog,” she said.

“If I was say that one’s no good, quit with her, but the next day we are having a meal together (as if nothing had happened), it looks no good. The best thing to do is give encouragement when he is down, and be proud when he is happy. These days everyone’s a critic, and assumes love can cover everything,” she said.

“Husband and wife and doing no better as the injury to their hearts is big. You have to give it time. I don’t want people praising or complimenting him, but just give him a bit of encouragement, just as his songs have kept us going in the past. What he did is very wrong but he deserves another chance,” she added.

Veiled hope of marital bliss

Sek, Eve

Former model Apisaya “Eve” Pattanaworasap has set off speculation she and rocker Sek Loso, whom she is nursing back to health after a bout with bipolar disease, are about to wed.

Eve has appeared twice wearing a wedding dress, the first time early this month in a series of images of her and Sek taken at the seaside, and more recently in images posted last week where she is now wearing a dress and veil, with Sek cuddling her.

Accompanying the first images, she wrote: “Every woman wants to wear this dress,” adding: “The beach, wind...10 years ago we met here, and this year we have come back.”

Eve, who in February hailed Sek’s return to the concert stage after his release from hospital following his latest bout with the illness, was engaged to Sek in November 2017 during a quick trip to Europe.

Sek first went to Britain to see his teenage daughter, Kwang, who is schooling there. He took Eve as well, and while the two were on a quick swing through Italy, popped into a church. The pair have yet to comment on their plans.