Socialite Kim Lim says she was physically abused by a family member as a child
Local socialite and beauty entrepreneur Kim Lim has revealed she was a victim of childhood abuse in a sit-down interview with local social media personality Xiaxue.
In the first of a three-part video series “Kim Lim Tells All” that was uploaded on Xiaxue’s YouTube channel on Thursday night, Lim was teary-eyed when she said she was six to seven years old at the time.
The 32-year-old heiress clarified that the abuser is not her father, Singaporean billionaire tycoon Peter Lim, but a family member whom she does not talk to now.
She declined to expose the identity of her abuser as she has forgiven the person and moved on.
“The other party was drunk a lot and (would) come back and cry and take it out on me,” Kim Lim recalled.
She said she still remembers the cigarette burns from the abuse, while Xiaxue – whose real name is Wendy Cheng – added Lim still has the scars on her hands.
Lim said she tried to erase the incident from her memory, but felt it might be a “good thing” to share it now if it can help others who have experienced similar abuse.
The single mum, who has a six-year-old son, added: “People may think that I live a good life, but as a kid, I did have it harder.
“I used to have this hate inside me, but as I grow older, my dad teaches me how to let go of things, how to compartmentalise things that are not good for me.
“He says, ‘Don’t keep thinking. There’s nothing that you are going to achieve. It’s just going to make yourself more miserable’.”
Lim said her father found out about the abuse “after a while”, and she would call him “screaming for help” when things escalated.
But he could not do much as he was mostly physically absent – which is why he shipped her off to a boarding school in London when she was 13 as a way of protecting her from further harm.
She said: “That’s one of the reasons I moved overseas, to stop this whole thing.”
She recalled how he explained his decision to send her overseas: “He told me, ‘This is for your own good. You might not see (it) now, but I will do it now (and) when you’re older, you will understand’.”
Lim said her father has apologised to her many times over what happened.
When Xiaxue asked Lim if she sought therapy for her childhood trauma, Lim said she is still seeing a psychiatrist so that she has someone to talk to whenever she experiences negative feelings.
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