The husband of late Hong Kong pop celebrity Coco Lee plans to turn to the Coroner’s Court to seek an inquest into the cause of her death in a bid to dispel rumors, the SCMP reported on Monday.
Bruce Rockowitz, a Canadian businessman, planned to do so to find out and make public the reasons she died, an insider said.
The insider said the move was aimed at clearing his name from rumors circulating that he was to blame for Lee’s decision to end her life.
Several angry fans from mainland China confronted Rockowitz at the cremation at Cape Collinson Crematorium in Chai Wan on August 1 and called him a “murderer”.
“Queen Mary Hospital told Bruce Rockowitz and the Lee family the cause of death, but the murderer rumors are still spreading around, especially in China,” the insider explained.
The late singer’s sister, Nancy, told the SCMP that the family was awaiting a full autopsy report on Lee.
“When we met the, we requested a full autopsy report on the death of Coco. The report could take four to six months to complete.”
Lee died on July 5 at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam after she was admitted in the wake of an attempt to take her own life on July 2.
Rockowitz, 64, told the Post recently that he and Lee had a 20-year relationship before she died at age 48.
The couple, who had no children, were married in a glamorous Hong Kong ceremony in 2011.
Lee moved out of the couple’s home in Southern district in October last year and into one of two penthouses at the Four Seasons Place serviced apartments in the International Finance Centre in Central.
Lee had breast cancer last year.
The source added Lee had leg surgery in February and needed to take medication for her muscles, but the singer did not appear to be suicidal at the time.
An insider told the Post on Friday that Rockowitz had paid the rent on the penthouse, which cost HK$800,000 a month.
The bill exceeded HK$8 million and he was still paying for the flat, the insider said.
A separate source said Lee was first found to be unwell on June 30 and stayed in hospital overnight. She was discharged on July 1 and moved into her sister Carol’s home on The Peak. She attempted suicide the next day.
Rockowitz flew back from the United States on July 5 to see Lee for the last time in hospital.
He came to Hong Kong in 1979 from Boston when he was 20 and settled down in the city as a tennis pro.
He became a billionaire in 2000 when he and Allan Zeman, the mastermind of the Lan Kwai Fong entertainment precinct in Central, sold the supply chain management venture, Colby Group Holdings, which they co-owned, for HK$2.2 billion to Li & Fung.
Rockowitz is co-founder of the Pure Group fitness chain and a director of technology consultancy firm Step Digital Group.
Lee shot to global fame in 2001 after she performed “A Love Before Time”, from Ang Lee’s award-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, at the Oscars. (with inputs from the SCMP)
