I first met Darryl David at Gurmit Singh's wedding dinner in 1995.
David's date was a woman named Lynette Pang, who was a stage actress and had co-hosted a Channel 5 music video programme called Vidz.I liked her. She was friendly to me. She's now Assistant Chief Executive of Group Marketing at Singapore Tourism Board.
So later, when I heard that David was getting married, I assumed it was to Pang. But it was to another woman, Georgina Chang.
Here's The New Paper report of the wedding in 1999:
IT'S true. Pyramid Game host Darryl David just got married.
Whoa, you exclaim. Why was there no news about it? Why no big newspaper story or footage on Showbuzz?
Because that's just the way Darryl and his wife, Perfect 10 programme director Georgina Chang, wanted it.
"I felt that a wedding was a personal thing, which should be shared with family and close friends. I've been to many celebrity weddings and I didn't want to have something like that," said Darryl, 28.
"I didn't want it televised, didn't want sponsorship or free wedding gowns. There's always some payback along with those things," he added.
Georgina, 28, was more blunt.
"Frankly, I didn't want it to become a bitch fest," she said.
She explained that after attending many celebrity weddings, she discovered that many people started bitching about everything and weren't really interested in the bride and groom.
"A wedding is a special day and we wanted only people who wanted to celebrate with us to be there," added Georgina.
As such, the newly-weds threw a dinner in a garden marquee at Fort Canning Park on April 9 where they invited only family and very close friends.
Which was ideal for Georgina, since she always wanted a marquee wedding.
For Darryl, it was also great not to have a wedding in a big ballroom.
"A ballroom reminds me of work. I host a lot of functions. I've practically been to almost every ballroom in Singapore. I definitely didn't want my wedding to be in one," he said.
They tied the knot at the Registry of Marriages on Sept 9, last year.
Darryl and Georgina met in university and quickly became good friends.
Georgina then left for Hongkong to work in Channel V in May 1994.
On one such trip home in 1996, Darryl and Georgina went out on a date - for the first time as single people.
"We've always had boyfriends or girlfriends before. That was the first time we were both single," she said.
Something special happened since it was a date that lasted till 5 am, said Darryl.
The relationship progressed - long-distance, over the next few years. Darryl went to Hongkong when he could, and Georgina came home as often as she could.
Finally, in February 1997, Georgina decided it was simpler to come home.
In April 1997, Darryl popped the question.
"One night, he just drove me to East Coast Beach, where we went on our first date, stood next to a huge canal, dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. It was quite romantic. There were even romantic sandflies all around us," revealed Georgina.
The most recent newspaper report I could find that indicated Chang was still married to David was in September 2001 just after 9/11:
PERFECT 10 DJs Jean Danker and Jamie Yeo were worried - their good friend and ex-boss Georgina Chang is in New York!
Georgina is holidaying there after she quit her job as Perfect 10's programme director.
What a relief when she called hubby Darryl David late Tuesday!
He told The New Paper: "I know tourists usually don't go to a spot like the World Trade Center that early (she'd just woken up when the attacks took place). But I was still worried sick. Asking her to fly back may not be a good idea."
There were no news reports of their divorce.
At least, I assume David and Chang must have divorced because he has since married a lawyer named Christina Sim in 2006 and has two kids with her.
What I find curious is that despite all that has been written about David since he was announced as a PAP candidate on Saturday, so far no mention has been made of his marriage to Chang, who is now the Vice President of English Programming (Music) at MediaCorp Radio and can still be considered a minor local celebrity of sorts. (Like me, ahem.)
It's akin to Glenn Ong becoming a candidate and all the write-ups about him don't mention that he used to be married to Kate Reyes and Jamie Yeo (not at the same time).
I mean, David and Chang were a somewhat famous couple back in the day, regularly photographed together not only in the newspapers but also on at least one magazine cover, and I bet some people still think they're married to each other.
Even in this fluff-filled 2010 article in a magazine called Real Love Works (published by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports) specifically about David's marriage to Sim, there was no acknowledgement that this is not his first marriage:
It almost seems like everyone is now pretending David's marriage to Chang never happened. Was it all just my imagination?
No, it wasn't.
For online proof, here's a blog post by Mr Brown from 1997:
You may ask, why should the love life of a political candidate be a concern of the electorate?
I don't know.
Ask Yaw Shin Leong and Michael Palmer.
UPDATE: See Darryl David as an actor in the cringey 90s
