http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/viewtopic.php?t=282645&start=0
MISS Ris Low, the reigning Miss Singapore World, walked through a packed Raffles City Shopping Centre late on Saturday morning and no one so much as batted an eyelid at her.
Despite being one of the most talked-about - castigated, really - beauty queens Singapore has ever produced, she was a nobody in a sea of shoppers.
But that must surely come as a huge relief to the 19-year-old for since Friday, her phone had been ringing off the hook after news broke that she had recently been convicted of credit card fraud and could be stripped of her title.
An even more startling revelation appeared in yesterday's The Straits Times - that she has bipolar disorder, or manic depressive disorder.
All this on top of the barrage of stinging criticisms in recent weeks about her embarrassing English diction during an Internet TV interview, in which she pronounced bikini as 'bigini' and introduced the nonsensical word 'Boomz'.
If the teenager was feeling stressed, upset or nervous, she hid it very well. 'I had no idea who gave out the information because all this is private and confidential,' she claimed, shortly after sitting down at a cafe.
'I'm a bit disappointed in why they got such things and sad because I know it will ruin my chance in the final,' said the Management Development Institute of Singapore hospitality diploma student.
She has had a few days to steel herself for the fallout: around last Wednesday, the Miss Singapore World organiser had alerted her that the press had got wind of the credit card conviction and was planning a story.
'I was hoping that it wouldn't come out. Things were fine until now. It caught me off guard,' she readily admitted. 'I just know I have to accept it, even though I'm a bit worried about my future. But I thought, okay, brace myself and actually face up to it.'
Sitting at the edge of a cushy armchair with her back ramrod straight throughout the one-hour interview, she does not let her eyes wander for even a second, nor does she allow herself a sip of the iced mocha drink in front of her.
MISS Ris Low, the reigning Miss Singapore World, walked through a packed Raffles City Shopping Centre late on Saturday morning and no one so much as batted an eyelid at her.
Despite being one of the most talked-about - castigated, really - beauty queens Singapore has ever produced, she was a nobody in a sea of shoppers.
But that must surely come as a huge relief to the 19-year-old for since Friday, her phone had been ringing off the hook after news broke that she had recently been convicted of credit card fraud and could be stripped of her title.
An even more startling revelation appeared in yesterday's The Straits Times - that she has bipolar disorder, or manic depressive disorder.
All this on top of the barrage of stinging criticisms in recent weeks about her embarrassing English diction during an Internet TV interview, in which she pronounced bikini as 'bigini' and introduced the nonsensical word 'Boomz'.
If the teenager was feeling stressed, upset or nervous, she hid it very well. 'I had no idea who gave out the information because all this is private and confidential,' she claimed, shortly after sitting down at a cafe.
'I'm a bit disappointed in why they got such things and sad because I know it will ruin my chance in the final,' said the Management Development Institute of Singapore hospitality diploma student.
She has had a few days to steel herself for the fallout: around last Wednesday, the Miss Singapore World organiser had alerted her that the press had got wind of the credit card conviction and was planning a story.
'I was hoping that it wouldn't come out. Things were fine until now. It caught me off guard,' she readily admitted. 'I just know I have to accept it, even though I'm a bit worried about my future. But I thought, okay, brace myself and actually face up to it.'
Sitting at the edge of a cushy armchair with her back ramrod straight throughout the one-hour interview, she does not let her eyes wander for even a second, nor does she allow herself a sip of the iced mocha drink in front of her.