Andy's partner pregnant?

Andy Lau and Carol Chu (both in white tops) holding hands tightly at the Hong Kong airport on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: APPLE DAILY

HONG KONG - THE media were waiting for them at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, and still they held hands as they made their way to an airport lounge.

Ending decades of coy denials, pop star Andy Lau finally went public with his Malaysian partner, Carol Chu, on Tuesday afternoon.

After they arrived in Hong Kong that night and were greeted by a media scrum, she clutched his arm in alarm and he patted her hand, said Apple Daily. The girl and the boy said to be the couple's children were nowhere to be seen, said reports.

The couple, who have been together for 24 years, were in Malaysia for her father's funeral. In what is seen as a sign that he is the family's son-in-law, the actor-singer was photographed at Chu senior's tomb on the seventh day of his death on Monday. But Lau, who turns 48 next month, stopped short of admitting he was married.

At the airport in Hong Kong on Tuesday, reporters trailed the couple to the carpark and asked if Chu, 43, was Mrs Lau and had children. She kept her head lowered and did not answer. Neither did he. Asked about the rumour that they would wed within 100 days of Mr Chu's death, he denied it.

Before they climbed into a car, he said: 'I won't speak of anything again. I won't explain again. Give me some time. Let me take her home to rest. I am sorry to have troubled everyone.'

The Heavenly King has kept mum about his love life for decades to maintain his image of a single and available pop star. His peers such as Jacky Cheung and Leon Lai have been more upfront, however. Cheung's marriage to former actress May Lo is public knowledge, as is Lai's romance with model Gaile Lai.

Lau and Chu began dating in 1985, said Apple Daily. In 1992, she was seen coming and going from his home and there was talk that they had secretly married in Canada. Rumours were rife that they had a daughter in 1996.

At Chu's travel company in Hong Kong, employees were heard addressing her as Mrs Lau, said the report. She has also been spotted at his concerts through the years, sometimes with a girl beside her.

Although Hong Kong is crawling with paparazzi, the couple were not photographed together for years. One of the first pictures of them was taken in February this year, at a meeting with Chu's father in Malaysia.