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Update | Auckland mayor still has questions to answer over sex scandal, says ex-lover Bevan Chuang

Grandfather of 32-year-old who had an affair with Auckland mayor was leading industrialist

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Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Bevan Chuang Ka-yan. Photo: SCMP

Bevan Chuang Ka-Yan, the woman at the centre of a mayoral sex scandal in New Zealand, has talked for the first time about her roots in a prominent Hong Kong family - and revealed she still hasn't talked to her father about the affair.

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Chuang's two-year relationship with Auckland mayor Len Brown, 57, was disclosed in October, sparking a public outcry and prompting an investigation into possible misuse of public money and resources by Brown to benefit his 32-year-old lover.

Speaking to the yesterday, Chuang said her grandfather was the late philanthropist and industrialist Chuang Chung-wen , who founded Chuang's Holdings, now Chuang's Consortium, a listed developer with properties in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mongolia and Taiwan. He died in 1993 aged 83.

Bevan Chuang Ka-yan had a 2-year affair. Photo: SMP
Bevan Chuang Ka-yan had a 2-year affair. Photo: SMP
The company's portfolio in Hong Kong includes the 21-storey Chuang's Tower in Central, London Plaza in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hung Hom Plaza and Parkes Residence in Kowloon.

Chuang's father is Andrew Chuang Siu-leung , 66, a former chairman of the operations review committee - the watchdog that monitors the work of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. She said she is in touch with him regularly. "I haven't talked to my dad about the affair; eventually, I will," she said.

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The anthropology graduate was 15 years old when she moved to Auckland with her father, mother and younger sister.

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