And finally…freedom through the press

A Hong Kong tycoon and the 65th richest man in the world has placed full-page adverts in local media announcing that he has split up with his girlfriend.

Joseph Lau, who has a net worth of $12.6 billion (£10 billion), according to Forbes, made the public information contributions by placing front-page announcements in several newspapers.

In them he explains that he is no longer with former lover Yvonne Lui.

He also took the opportunity to inform her, and anyone else interested, that she will not get any more than the £200 million that he says she has already received from him as a result of their relationship.

“Ms Lui has accumulated considerable wealth, and is now a very wealthy woman,” Mr Lau’s statement reads. “She can maintain a luxurious lifestyle by herself without my financial support.”

The 65-year-old retail billionaire, who last November spent a record £32 million on a flawless “Blue Moon” diamond which he named after one of his children with Mrs Lui, met the mother of his children in 2001 at a Luis Vuitton store in London when the former beauty pageant contestant was studying for a PhD degree in chemical engineering at King’s College.

The pair had two children together but they never married.

From the information in his adverts, it seems that they were in a relationship until 2014.

Mr Lau has since been linked to a string of women and it would appear that he wants to make it clear that he is no longer with Ms Lui.

According to reports, the tycoon’s current lover is Kimbie Chan, a former assistant.

Mr Lau, who owns one of the world’s best collection of fine wines which numbers 10,000 bottles, said he made the announcement in response to “untrue reports” about his relationship with 37-year-old Ms Lui.

Rumours of a separation had been circulating since August.

Mr Lau was handed a five-year jail term in 2014 when he was found guilty with a business partner of corruption and money laundering over a land deal in Macau. However, he will not have to serve the sentence unless he enters the former Portuguese colony.