30th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) Television host Bob Lam said yesterday that former Boy’z singer Steven Cheung has never repaid a single dollar of money borrowed from him over the years, and that Cheung recently contacted him again hoping for another loan.
Lam was at TVB City for the opening blessing of a new drama when talk turned to Cheung’s widely reported debts, including Cheung’s own admission of seven-figure arrears. Named as one of the creditors, Lam stepped back four paces at the mere mention of “Steven” and said: “Kenny Kwan has spoken, Charlene Choi has spoken — I thought I could avoid this, but today I still have to face it.”
The pair have known each other since Cheung’s Boy’z debut, when Lam was a DJ; they socialised and played mahjong. Watching Cheung’s path since, Lam said he felt sorry and hurt: “In the Boy’z days things were really quite good. Later so much happened. Every choice seemed wrong; every decision went the wrong way.”
He admitted lending several times, declining to name the sums but saying they were not huge. Cheung painted a pitiful picture, and Lam — like Choi, who treated her outlay as red packets for Cheung’s children — felt he was helping a friend raise a family on thin income. “Helping mates in a jam is ordinary,” he said, “but you need a little promise that loans get repaid — that is what a gentleman does.” Asked whether, five years after he first spoke of the debt, Cheung had returned even one dollar, Lam smiled bitterly: “There really has been none.”
By a fourth approach he felt he had to stop. His money was hard-earned, he said, and the whole affair left him sorry. Seeing Cheung vow in interviews to repay friends, Lam hoped he would work harder — take outside jobs or part-time shifts if showbiz was quiet — as others in Lam’s circle do when clearing debts.
Asked how long they had been out of touch, Lam revealed Cheung had still contacted him. Pressed on whether it was to borrow again, he sighed that the last time he refused. Cheung promised repayment as before, but Lam said he had chosen trust once too often and now felt “a bit foolish”, though he had acted as a friend. Online claims that Cheung uses his children for emotional leverage hit Lam’s soft spot: talk of no food, unpaid rent, or no money for milk powder and nappies moved him to help. That excuse, he joked, is spent — the children should be past milk and nappies — and another such pitch would get nowhere.
Advice Lam offered was brushed aside with excuses, leaving him briefly angry. He has written the money off: “There is no getting it back.” He told Cheung to repay others first and said any return would still make him glad.