TAIPEI • Asked about photographs of her moving out of Taiwanese billionaire Pierre Chen's luxury home in Hong Kong, Hong Kong actress Rosamund Kwan made a shocking confirmation yesterday.

"We're not breaking up, we're divorcing," she said.

Kwan, 53, was speaking at an event in Taipei to publicise her hand cream, said Apple Daily.

She declined to discuss the reasons for her split with Chen, 59, but said she was in a good mood and still looking for love.

The couple had been together for about eight years. The media had heard wedding bells repeatedly, most recently in April when the two were rumoured to be marrying in France.

According to sources cited by Apple Daily, the couple quietly tied the knot overseas early last year, then secretly threw a party in Paris.

But when it came to the minutiae of living together, they were not a good match and often had run-ins, the sources said.

Half a year ago, Kwan asked Chen for a separation.

What drove the final nail in the coffin was his refusal to go public with the marriage, the sources said.

Chen, who has a son and twin daughters with his former wife, worried that his two girls would be unhappy about his remarriage, but Kwan did not want to be his secret, stay-at-home wife, said the report.

He tried to save the marriage but she would not change her mind. She is not asking for alimony or division of property, said the report.

It is the second divorce for both.

Kwan was briefly married to Hong Kong businessman Chris Wong back in 1981.

Chen founded Yageo, an electronics company that is a supplier to Apple. He is an avid art buyer, collecting works by artists such as Cy Twombly and Francis Bacon.