Actress Barbie Hsu has died at the age of 48 after falling ill while on holiday.
The Taiwanese star is best known for appearing in the 2001 series Meteor Garden, which later spawned a Chinese reboot of the same name in 2018 which was available on Netflix. It is reported that the star fell ill with influenza while on a visit to Japan.
According to her sister Dee Hsu, her illness then progressed into pneumonia. Fellow television star Dee told Taiwan's TVBS: "During the Lunar New Year, our family came to Japan for vacation. My dearest sister Barbie has unfortunately left us after getting pneumonia, triggered by influenza."
Barbie, also known by her stage name Big S, had a number of other health issues. She suffered from epilepsy and also had mitral valve prolapse.
She had been hospitalised in the past from seizures, including one which amost killed her while she was giving birth to her son Wang Hsi-lin in 2016.
Barbie, who was also a singer, is survived by her husband, South Korean musician DJ Koo, and two children from her first marriage.
While she and DJ Koo, real name Koo Jun-yup, married in 2022, they first dated between 1998 to 2000. However they broke up because his entertainment company had a "dating ban", which is common in South Korea.
Barbie married Chinese businessman Wang Xiaofei in 2010, with whom she shares two children. They divorced in 2021 over claims of infidelity and political differences over Taiwan.
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