Pan Lingling Says She "Would Go Crazy" If She Her Sons Smoked; Reveals Husband Huang Shinan Quit Smoking For Her Before They Dated

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Kicking a bad habit is undeniably hard. So when Huang Shinan did it Pan Lingling, it's easy to see why Mediacorp actress was so touched by his gesture. 

In the new Mediacorp slice-of-life drama Old & Dangerous, which revolves around the friendship of five old men — Chen Shucheng, Richard Low, Zhu Houren, Wang Yuqing and Li Wen Hai — the 56-year-old plays the younger girlfriend of Yuqing.

The show explores Lingling's relationship with a partner significantly older than herself, something the actress is actually familiar with in real life.

After all, her husband, former Mediacorp actor Huang Shinan, 64, is nine years older than her.

She met Shinan when she was 17 years old. They tied the knot in 1996, and now have two sons — Beckham, 27, and Kynaston, 24.

Lingling tells 8days.sg at the drama's recent press conference (Jul 13) what Shinan actually did to win her over back then despite their age gap.

"One thing that really touched me was, he once asked me what my ideal partner is, and I said: 'I don't care if you're rich or poor, but you cannot be a smoker. I cannot stand smokers'. I said that because I knew he was still smoking at that time," Lingling tells us.

Shinan went on to ask for a reason, noting that Lingling's father and brother smoked too.

"I said: 'Yes, precisely because they smoke, that's why I don't like smokers. They're my father and brother, I don't have to live with them or do anything intimate with them. But if you're my boyfriend, you can't smoke'," she recalls.

Because of what she said, Shinan quit smoking, a habit he had for more than 10 years.

"That really touched me. I felt that this man really loves me. He told me he used to smoke up to four packs of cigarettes a day, but for me, he stopped entirely," she says.

While that conversation took place before they started dating, Lingling admitted that Shinan did try to sneak in a few puffs after they got together.

And Lingling did not hesitate to show how merciless she could be when he went back on his word.

"I really slammed the [car] door and walked away. He told me to get in the car, I didn't listen. I hailed a cab and just left by myself," says the actress.

"Ever since then, he didn't dare to smoke again. This is one condition I'm adamant about. I said if you really can't quit, then let's not be together."

So how would Lingling react if she ever caught her kids smoking?

"Oh, I would go crazy," she replies in a heartbeat.

"Because my dad is a smoker and he died of lung cancer. He left really soon, in just three months. He had Stage 3 cancer and could have been saved. I am terrified too, because I am a cancer survivor myself," says Lingling, who was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in 2013 and recovered in 2014.

"I know that journey is really tough. I managed to survive, but my father did not. So I'm really against my sons smoking," she says. 

Old & Dangerous premieres on Jul 27, weekdays 9pm on Ch 8, and will be available on demand for free on mewatch.

Meanwhile, catch Lingling in The Grind on mewatch or in the below below: