So $crewed<\/em> podcast<\/a>, Pearlyn revealed that she has seven children with four different partners, three of whom she married.<\/p>\nHer current husband, whom she married in 2022, is the father of her two youngest children, a son and daughter aged five and six.<\/p>\n
Her other five children comprise three sons and two daughters, the eldest of whom is 17.<\/p>\n
Pearlyn dropped out of school as a teenager and met her first boyfriend, who was a year older, on Friendster.<\/p>\n
She became pregnant about four or five months into the relationship.<\/p>\n
“It was on purpose. I told my ex to purposely ‘shoot’ in,” she said candidly, leaving the podcast hosts stunned.<\/p>\n
Pearlyn explained that she had always loved children and had a strong maternal instinct.<\/p>\n
However, the relationship didn’t last, and her eldest son was subsequently raised by his paternal grandmother, who doted on him.<\/p>\n
At 20, Pearlyn met her second partner while studying at a private school.<\/p>\n
The couple had two children, a son and daughter, and got married, but she left him after three years due to his alleged infidelity and drug use.<\/p>\n
Pearlyn later met her second husband, a navy serviceman, at the nightclub where she worked.<\/p>\n
They had two children, a son and daughter, but the marriage ended after he hit her son from her previous marriage. Her ex-husband now cares for their two children, as Pearlyn felt he could “give them a better life”.<\/p>\n
She subsequently met her current husband, a former army warrant officer, at a pub.<\/p>\n
When one of the podcast hosts asked how she managed to find four serious partners when some Singaporean women struggle to find even one, Pearlyn had an interesting take.<\/p>\n
She believes women today are too afraid to take chances in relationships and have overly high expectations, which she thinks contributes to Singapore’s low birth rate.<\/p>\n
“You never try, you never know,” she said.<\/p>\n
She added: “Now the girls are so scared of this, so scared of that. Even so scared to give birth. I don’t understand why.”<\/p>\n
One of the hosts joked that she had practically solved Singapore’s low birth rate problem.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Pearlyn has no regrets about having seven kids.<\/p>\n
“My parents always say I’m very clever at giving birth,” she laughed.<\/p>\n
One of the podcast hosts even dubbed her “Singapore’s most fertile woman”.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, a lot of people say that,” she replied, revealing that she became pregnant again just three months after giving birth to her seventh child.<\/p>\n
As she has anaemia, Pearlyn said she consulted a doctor before deciding what to do about the pregnancy.<\/p>\n
She did not elaborate on what happened afterwards, but made it clear she has no plans to have more children.<\/p>\n
Husband bankrupt, family struggles financially<\/strong><\/p>\nPearlyn’s current husband left his army job two years ago at her urging so he could spend more time with their young children.<\/p>\n
However, he struggled to find stable employment and eventually declared bankruptcy after accumulating around S$70K in debts.<\/p>\n
He was also jailed for slapping Pearlyn’s son from a previous marriage, who has ADHD, after the boy repeatedly hit his younger sister.<\/p>\n
Pearlyn now works as a private-hire driver, earning around S$3K a month after expenses, while her husband makes another S$300 to S$700 from part-time work.<\/p>\n
The couple, who need around S$4K a month to support four of her children, also receive S$890 in government financial assistance and live in a one-bedroom HDB rental flat costing S$50 a month.<\/p>\n
Still, money is tight. They sometimes have to borrow from friends, and Pearlyn admitted that she can have as little as S$50 in her bank account. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite their struggles, Pearlyn remains remarkably upbeat.<\/p>\n
“Because this is life. No point dwelling on the sad things, right? Have to be positive,” she said.<\/p>\n
Asked to rate how “screwed” her life was on a scale of one to 10, she gave it a nine.<\/p>\n
However, after spending much of her adult life pregnant or raising young children, she’s ready for a break.<\/p>\n
She even has one request for her kids.<\/p>\n
“Please, don’t make me a grandma so soon,” she recalled telling them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve spent the past 17 years getting pregnant, giving birth and raising my children. I want to rest.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n