A fall from grace

To her fans and friends, the news was but heartbreaking. This shouldn’t happen to someone who once earned Bt50 million a year, and was hailed as one of the most successful Asian models. With her unique Isaan look, she offered a breath of fresh air at a time when Caucasian and look krueng (half Thai-half western) looks dominated the fashion scene. Her rise to fame was so fast that she could not prepare to cope with it.

In 1994, a scout spotted her while eating noodles in Bangkok, and she won the Elite Supermodel Thailand contest. One minute she was just a worker and the next she was the “Face of Asia” shuttling between the fashion capitals of New York, Paris, London and Milan, working alongside the likes of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. Apart from Chanel, Yui also modelled for Christian Dior and Raph Lauren. She was also in a George Michael music video and Hollywood was interested in her. 

As a supermodel, she lived in London, where her images were all over glossy magazines and billboards. “I loved London. People there don’t care where you come from or who you are,” she said in an interview two years ago. She was proud. “Although I don’t have a good education, I’m respected,” she said. 

Fame has its drawbacks. Her earnings were so enormous that she spent money like there was no tomorrow. She bought luxury goods and went to expensive restaurants. “I’d spend loads of money treating friends and having fun. Money was so easy to make,” she said.

Fame is fickle, and at a peak of her career she started using illicit drugs. “It was so easy to buy them and we [models] like them as it gives you an energy boost.” After a few years, drugs landed her in trouble and she was sent back to Thailand in 2002. “I became really screwed up. It came crashing down in Milan one day when I didn’t turn up for a job. I was sent back to Thailand because I couldn’t handle myself. I was lucky to get to the airport,” she said. 

Back to square one with a few suitcases eight years ago, Yui hardly had any money left as she’d lost it to drugs, luxury goods and high living at restaurants and clubs. “If I had saved it instead, I’d be a millionaire today,” she said. Although she successfully quit drugs, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The condition requires taking medicine, and it was lack of medication that landed her on the street.

Fuelled by work stress and the temptations of vice, Yui is not the first young person to become a victim of fame and fortune. She won’t be the last. We have seen the falls of many young stars before – the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Macaulay Culkin and Britney Spears. The lightning speed of fame does not translate into life security for all. But we should not jump the gun and judge them. In the case of Yui, life after fame will be even tougher with her bipolar disorder, not to mention her lack of education and family support. 

From earning Bt2 million alone from Chanel for just 30 minutes of work at her peak, last year Yui said she was living on Bt200 a day. No London apartment and far from it, she lives in a single-room without air-conditioning. Despite her hardship, she refuses to give up. “I don’t think much about the past. I don’t want to feel sad. I go to the temple because it helps with stress and my bipolar. I’d like to get back to modelling and I’d like to help people with bipolar,” she said in an interview last year. 

It will be a steep mountain to climb. However, she may not have to climb it alone this time. The disheartening news has prompted many friends and fans to chip in to help. If there is any blessing in her life, it will be her strong will to get back to normalcy. Falling from fame can hurt badly, but Yui has experienced it and compensated, and has learned an expensive lesson. Now she has to start anew and live a simpler life, like the rest of us.