Fall of a supermodel

Family members have provided details on how former supermodel Rojjana ??Yui?? Phetkanha, who was reportedly earning 50 million baht a year during the height of her career, ended up impoverished and wandering the streets of Bangkok.

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Fall of a supermodel

When former supermodel Rojjana ‘‘Yui’’ Phetkanha was found disoriented on a Bangkok street last week, there wasn't much information about what put her there.

Now family members and colleagues have begun providing details. Yui, who was reportedly earning 50 million baht a year during the height of her career, is a victim of a mental illness know as 'biopolar disorder”, complicated by excessive drinking and the negative influence of friends.

Family members say Yui had left her stepmother’s home in Maha Sarakham province a week before, after relapsing into her drinking habit.

She was heading for Bangkok, where she hoped to stay with her elder brother. Family on her father’s side, who have come forward to discuss her plight, say Yui did not get there, and wound up on the streets instead.

Ex-manager Saroj ‘‘Joe’’ na Nakorn said Yui was admitted to psychiatric care in July after an aunt dumped her by a city flyover. Joe said Yui can be difficult to manage when she stops taking her medication for her bi-polar disorder.

When she is behaving, however, she can appear lucid, functional and beautiful as seen in a recent advertising spread she did for a jewellery brand in Khon Kaen.

‘‘We were arranging a course for her to teach modelling after she left hospital, and found a relative who was prepared to look after her in Sakon Nakhon. Then she just disappeared,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, her stepbrother Petchubol says Yui has also fallen under the negative influence of friends from the modelling world.

‘‘Two Thais turned up from overseas at mum’s place in Maha Sarakham. As soon as they arrived, Yui went back to drinking and smoking. They gave her 3,000 baht, and she blew it on alcohol,” he said.

Yui’s father, Yotpetch Petchkanha, 63, a mechanic in Bangkok, said he gave his daughter a place to stay after she was discharged in July.

The pair were reunited two years ago after spending decades apart. Mr Yotpetch divorced Yui’s mother when Yui was still a child.

 ‘‘I took her back to Maha Sarakham, where she lived with my new wife,’’ Mr Yotpetch said. ‘‘At first she was willing to take her pills.

Later, however, her condition started to deteriorate.

‘‘She hit my wife, and damaged our things. She left to stay with her elder brother in Bangkok, but couldn’t find him. The next I heard, she was found on the street,’’ he said.

Mr Yotpetch said he could not say if he would care for Yui again upon her release. ‘‘I’m not sure if my wife is willing to take her back,’’ he said.

‘‘I think it might be better if she stayed with her brother.
 
Adapted from a story in the Sunday “Mae Moo” column