KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 ― Chinese actress Vicky Zhao has fallen on hard times and is now taking on more jobs to gather funds to pay off compensation arising from suits.

Chinese portal Sina.com reported that the 44-year-old and her husband Huang You Long had in 2016 via a company they controlled in Tibet Longwei, tried to buy 50 per cent shares of a listed company Zhejiang Wanjia.

Their bid was said to have disrupted the market, and in November 2018 the China Securities Regulatory Commission banned Zhao and her husband from securities markets for a period of five years.

Things got worse for the couple in 2019 when shareholders sued them for giving false statements.

At last count, Zhao had accumulated more than 500 suits that are now at the appeal stage, where she may have to end up paying 84 million yuan (RM51 million) in compensation if she loses the appeal.

Sources revealed that Zhao, who shot to fame playing Huan Zhu Ge Ge in TV series My Fair Princess, had been diligently taking up jobs in the hopes of gathering more funds to pay off the compensation.

Previously she would refuse to take assignments that are deemed too small, but it was reported that she has since had a change in attitude.

Zhao recently joined Zhejiang Television's variety show Everybody Standby.