One morning while on holiday in Jeju Island in February 2024, Jonathan Leong and his wife Jeneen Goh decided to dress in matching stripes.
He wore a black-and-white long-sleeved T-shirt, and she had on a brown outfit with black stripes.
When the couple walked out of the bedroom of their rented house, lo and behold, their friend, playwright Michael Chiang, was clad in a black-and-white striped T-shirt.
“It was hilarious,” remembered Mr Chiang.
Said Mr Leong: “We just came out of the room and we were all in stripes.”
Added Ms Goh: “It wasn’t planned.”
A fondness for striped shirts isn’t the only thing the three share. Music, movies and home decor are among other topics that bind them.
Age doesn’t come into the picture even though Mr Chiang, who turns 70 in October, is a good 28 years older than the couple, who are both 42.
Mr Chiang has worked in the media since the 1980s, first as a journalist before becoming a magazine publisher, launching titles such as 8 Days. He is also a playwright whose dozen plays include Army Daze, which was turned into a movie, Beauty World and Private Parts.
Mr Leong, who is best known for being the first runner-up in the second season of Singapore Idol in 2006, now works in an investment asset management firm. Ms Goh has a background in digital marketing and started 21 Stories, a digital marketing agency, in 2017.
The couple’s first child, a daughter, was born in May 2024, and the Jeju trip was in fact a “babymoon” for them.
In a Sumiko At 60 podcast, the three tell Straits Times executive editor Sumiko Tan how they met, and why one should remain open to friendships with people of all ages.
Host: Sumiko Tan (sumiko@sph.com.sg)
Produced by: Studio+65
Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg
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