FOCUS
Tammy is
All Grown Up
By Farhan Shah
She first caught the
public eye, playing the
role of Tammy in the
popular local television
drama, Growing Up.
Twenty years, two
marriages and a baby
later, Jamie Yeo has
definitely grown up.
Jamie Yeo is, without a doubt, seasoned
with the media. It’s early on a Saturday
morning with the kind of weather made
for long, relaxed brunches – warm
with just the right touch of humidity
– and denim cut-off shorts but Jamie
emerges dressed in a stunning green
ensemble designed to turn heads and
drop jaws. “So, where are we holding
the photo shoot?” she says cheerily.
“Shall we head down? The weather is
perfect.”
Numerous smiles and poses later,
we’re back in her apartment, a cosy
three-bedroom co ndominium at the
base of Bukit Timah hill, lounging and
chatting on the sofa. She’s slipped out
of the green dress into something more
comfortable. You guessed it – denim
cut-off shorts.
Her swift wardrobe change is an apt
metaphor for her life right now: the
flawless image she presents when
she’s in the public eye and the relaxed
persona of a loving wife and doting
Mummy that Jamie is most contented
in when she’s behind closed doors. And
after having been in the entertainment
industry and public spotlight for
close to two decades, Jamie would be
forgiven for being a bit jaded with the
ravenous media circus, especially after
her high-profile divorce with former
colleague Glenn Ong more than five
years back that dominated column
inches for months on end.
Yet, to her credit, Jamie was
effervescent, chatty and at peace
during the interview. She’s found her
happy centre and it’s clear that her
husband, 38-year-old Thorsten Nolte,
and rambunctious three-year-old
daughter Alysia have played significant
roles in this development.
Jamie and Thorsten met backstage
in 2009 during The Prodigy’s concert
after a mutual friend introduced the
both of them to each other. After a
year of courtship, they exchanged
vows in a low-key wedding ceremony
that was attended by a few close
family members and friends.
Jamie was already about 14 weeks
pregnant, an unplanned accident
according to the gossip mongers, at
the time of the wedding.
Jamie reassures me otherwise.
“Honestly, in this day and age, it’s so
hard to have an unplanned pregnancy
if you take the proper precautions. I
had actually actively stopped taking
the birth control pills because the
common consensus in the medical
community is that, on average, it
takes a few months for your body to
start ovulating normally so that you
would be ready to bear a child.”
Jamie’s body took only two weeks.
Unfortunately for Jamie and Thorsten,
little Alysia was born more than two
months premature. She weighed
only slightly more than a kilogram
and had to be put under observation
for close to two months before
being given a clean bill of health and
allowed to go back home. Even then,
Jamie struggled with breastfeeding;
her body was unable to produce
adequate milk for Alysia and she had
to supplement it with formula. “It was
just one of those issues that I had to
overcome and I kept reminding myself
that there were a lot of Mums out
there just like me that were grappling
12
Family & Life • Feb 2014
with the same problem,” Jamie says
matter-of-factly. “Thank God we live
in a world where formula milk is
relatively nutritious!”
Three years later, the infant who
used to struggle with the very act
of breathing has grown up into an
energetic three-year-old tyke with a
love for chocolates and a fascination
for pebbles.
“She loves playing with stones! She’s
very fascinated with them,” Thorsten
chimes in.
“Yeah, she would bring home a stone
and hold it in her hands,” Jamie says
before turning to Alysia, who was
playing what I assume to be a game
of patty-cake with my photographer,
and asking her: “Right sweetie? Why
do you like stones?”
Alysia stops clapping her hands and
answers: “Because I want to throw
them.”
Throw them at people?
“No! I like to throw them into the
water, at the river downstairs,” she
replies in mock indignation before
focusing her attention on a more
pressing nature – the game of pattycake.
For Thorsten and Jamie, Alysia has
been more than just a new addition
into their family. She has given the
both of them new leases of life,
teaching them to appreciate the little
things in the world, as evidenced by
the stones episode. Thorsten says,
admiration apparent in his voice:
“Thanks to Alysia, I’m seeing life
through the eyes of a child again,
where every small detail has a sense
of wonder attached to it. You forget
this when you become an adult going
through your day and I’m glad that
with Alysia, every single thing is
wonderful.”
More than that, Alysia has taught
the both of them the true meaning of
benevolence, of giving everything you
have without truly expecting nothing
in return. As Jamie says, “you are
not utterly selfless until you have a
child”.
The 36-year-old, who took a year off
to raise Alysia, now has her plate full
with her responsibilities as a mother,
her duties on The Power Breakfast
Show and her new business venture,
Mums.SG, that she is very excited
about. Jamie started the online
baby store with her friend Tristan
Lo, a father of two, based on her
experiences as a working mother.
One of its features is an online
marketplace for entrepreneurial
mothers to hawk the wares that they