HONG KONG - HEAD massages from her much younger fengshui master turned into body massages, but little did tycoon Nina Wang know that this would be the start of a bizarre love story that would have tongues wagging long after her death.

Now all of Hong Kong is wondering whether her gift of one of her trademark pigtails could be worth billions of dollars to her longtime lover, Tony Chan Chun Chuen, now 49. Mrs Wang died of ovarian cancer in April 2007 at age 69.

That estate is not just at the centre of the legal battle between Mr Chan and the Chinachem Charitable Foundation set up by Mrs Wang and her late husband. It has also been the centre of sensational stories about their affair.

The case is literally a battle of wills - one that Mr Chan claims Mrs Wang wrote in 2006 leaving the entire estate to him, and an earlier one that the foundation says she drew up in 2002.

Mr Lawrence Lok, a lawyer for the foundation, described Mr Chan as Mrs Wang's 'toy boy' in court last week. The fengshui master angrily denied that.

Mr Chan wrapped up five days on the witness stand last week. He said the affair started innocently enough in 1992 when Mrs Wang was 55 and he was 32. They met at lunch on March 12, when he gave her head massages. Within days, they became body massages. Mr Chan, who was already married at the time, described his affair with Mrs Wang as 'intimate'.

The lovers took overseas trips together and shared hobbies such as flying model helicopters, he said. They dug holes and burned bank notes in strange fengshui rituals.

It was in 1998 that Mrs Wang cut off her trademark pigtails, kept one and gave the other to Mr Chan. Last Tuesday, Mr Lok asked Mr Chan during cross-examination if she had given him her pigtail to perform a fengshui ritual, which Mrs Wang believed could prolong her life.

Mr Chan denied that, insisting it was simply 'proof of our relationship'.

Mr Lok also asked Mr Chan why he kept video and audio recordings of their meetings, accusing Mr Chan of wanting to use the tapes to blackmail Mrs Wang if their relationship ended.

Additional information from Reuters, AP, AFP

Read the full story in The Sunday Times.