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Before entering the local showbiz scene, Sheila Sim established her career in the modelling industry, working in fashion capitals like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Milan and Paris.
As a guest on the latest episode of Quan Yi Fong's talk show "Hear U Out", the 37-year-old opened up on her family background and modelling experiences.
One of the topics revolved around how Sim's relationship with her father has developed over the years.
Screenshot via meWATCH.
Embarrassed to buy sanitary pads
Following the passing of her elder brother from leukaemia, Sim's parents divorced when she was twelve and she went to live with her father.
Sim admitted that major problems arose between them as she was closer to her mother, and distant from her father who was often not at home.
Caption translates as, "Daddy Sim under a lot of stress." Screenshot via meWATCH.
One particularly awkward incident occurred when Sim had her first period.
At that time, she felt embarrassed about the idea of buying sanitary pads.
"I didn't dare to buy it on my own and didn't dare to tell my father," she said, adding that she didn't know what to do.
She chose to tell her father, who also wasn't sure what to do.
She revealed that he eventually went to buy sanitary pads for her and acknowledged that he really dotes on her.
Dinner time walks
While the parent-child relationship was poor at the start, they managed to develop a good relationship later on, Sim said.
"He's a softie at heart but he expresses himself by shouting," the model said.
She found it awkward living with her father initially, as they struggled to find topics to talk about, which she believed her father had also noticed.
She realised her father might have been under a lot of stress at that time as he suddenly had to fulfil the roles of both the father and mother while doing shift work at a hotel, and was worried about leaving Sim alone at home.
Nonetheless, he noticed that the two of them tend to chat during their walks to eat out, and decided to use that as a way to bridge the gap between them.
"Since then, we'd take long walks whenever we ate out. We'd walk for an hour," she added, "That's how we started improving our relationship with each other."
If you're wondering how a girl who was undergoing puberty at that time could be so co-operative, she wasn't.
Caption translates as, "I was forced [to go on the long walks]". Screenshot via meWATCH.
"I didn't have a choice, we had to eat. He would say, 'Come on, let's go for dinner,'" Sim explained how she protested against this arrangement by asking why can't they take a bus, which would trigger another argument.
However, his insistence that she go on these walks with him and his deliberate choice to pick eateries that were far in order to improve communication with his daughter paid off.
"It was only much later that I understood his intentions," Sim said.
Accepting her father's wife
The actress-model shared that both her parents have remarried since the divorce.
She disclosed that she was very angry for a long time when her father first started seeing his girlfriend.
In addition to disliking the sudden arrival of a stranger when it had always just been the two of them, Sim had even retorted, "I will not call her 'Mum'!" in classic soap drama style.
Caption translates as, "Watched too many stepmother dramas." Screenshot via meWATCH.
According to Sim, her father's then-girlfriend was living abroad and her father was also not in Singapore very often.
Sim remained somewhat tolerable of the circumstances as she did not have to see her.
However, when he returned home or if his partner came to visit, the father and daughter pair would bicker.
When his partner officially moved to Singapore, their quarrels worsened.
Sim conceded that she was very selfish then and was convinced that he should not remarry since his first marriage had failed.
Persistently sceptical of her step-mum's intentions, it took Sim ten years to finally accept her.
Ultimately, Sim was moved by her step-mum's sincerity, when she noticed that the latter was constantly supporting and taking care of her father.
Top images via meWATCH.
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