'I tried to distract myself but ended up neglecting my wife': Lee Teng opens up about how the couple dealt with the miscarriage

'I tried to distract myself but ended up neglecting my wife': Lee Teng opens up about how the couple dealt with the miscarriage
PHOTO: Screengrab from meWATCH

Going through a miscarriage is a painful process and local TV host Lee Teng tried to distract himself from the grief and pain.

However, he didn't realise that he ended up accidentally neglecting his wife.

In the latest episode of the meWATCH talk show Hear U Out, the 37-year-old admitted to fellow host Quan Yi Fong that the miscarriage became a "wake-up call" for him to take care of his wife. He explained that the couple dealt with the grief differently: "Back then, I told myself to just play video games or watch movies and whatnot. I tried to distract myself but ended up neglecting my wife.

"She couldn't do what I did. I neglected her feelings at that time. I thought she would find her own way to deal with what happened but I realised I was wrong. She had no one else to talk to about this. The only person she could talk to was me and she really suffered a lot because I didn't realise it earlier."

It all came to a head when Lee Teng's wife broke down one night and called him out.

Lee Teng recalled: "She told me that I could pretend this never happened, move on with my life and treat tomorrow as a new beginning, but she couldn't do that. She said she had to pick up all the 'broken pieces' and slowly put them back together again."

At this point in the interview, Lee Teng started tearing up and he confessed that her words made him aware that he "wasn't alone anymore". He realised that he had a wife and needed to "take good care of her".

Learning about the miscarriage

Lee Teng had announced his engagement to his then-girlfriend Gina Lin in March last year, and then news of the pregnancy two months later.

Lin, who was also born in Taiwan, flew back in July to prepare for birth, but unfortunately miscarried. She broke her silence in August, saying that she wanted to destroy herself and blamed herself for the incident.

[[nid:507364]]

In a (cruel) twist of fate, Lee Teng had actually spoken to Yi Fong a few days after he learnt that his wife had miscarried. Addressing Yi Fong on the show, he admitted: "When we were talking, you said something that really shook me. You said, 'I can't believe Lee Teng is about to become a father'."

As Yi Fong's comment hit a little too close to home, Lee Teng shared that he felt like he was "going to break down" at that point. He clarified that he didn't blame Yi Fong as she didn't know what transpired and she apologised during the interview as well.

However, Lee Teng has now seemingly made peace with the issue, especially after the outpour of support from netizens who let him know that he wasn't alone.

He said: "There was nothing we could do. We just had to face it head-on. To me, this has been a capricious year. I was given a lot of hope but right when I reached the top, I was viciously smacked back down. But that's what they mean when they say life is full of uncertainties."

bryanlim@asiaone.com

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.