Lesbian Gigi Chao Rebukes Hong Kong Tycoon Dad For Marriage Bounty Offer In Open Letter
Gigi Chao, the lesbian daughter of Hong Kong tycoon Cecil Chao Sze-tsung who doubled the reward for the man who would marry her, has written an open letter to him, asking him to accept her for who she is.
In 2012, Mr Chao made international news when he offered a HK$500 million [AUD73.6 million] to any man who would win his daughter’s heart and marry her. It was an outrageous offer, one that appeared more ludicrous given the fact that his daughter was already married – to another woman.
But it was real, and so thousands of men reportedly applied for the job to become Ms Chao’s husband.
Unfortunately for Mr Chao, none was successful in capturing Ms Chao’s heart. And so he doubled the prize money.
Earlier in January, the self-proclaimed playboy offered HK$1 billion to the winning man. So far, the race is still on.
Ms Chao, the executive director of her father’s luxury property development company, found her dad’s meddling in her love life amusing on both times. She saw it as his way of saying he wants what he thinks is better for her, even though she disagrees with it. She said that she is grateful to have a very loving father, but she’s still not interested to marry a man.
Her decision not to choose from a bevy of suitors that her 77-year-old father’s money have attracted has a lot to do with the fact that she’s already married to a woman. She married Sean Eav in France in 2012 after seven years of dating.
Also, the 34-year-old lesbian socialite is actively involved in the LGBT community. She is an activist for the Big Love Alliance, a gay rights group that lobbies for the government to pass anti-discrimination legislations.
Apparently, Ms Chao has had enough of emails and phone calls from interested men so she’s putting a stop to it by telling her father in a gracious way to just let her be.
“Dear Daddy,” she opened in the lengthy letter published in Hong Kong newspapers.
“I’m not asking you to be best of friends, however it would mean the world to me if you could just not be so terrified of her and treat her like a normal dignified human being,” she said, referring to Ms Eav.
“I am proud of my life, and I would not choose to live it any other way... I’m sorry I misled you to think I was only in a lesbian relationship because there was a shortage of good, suitable men in Hong Kong. There are plenty of good men, they are just not for me.”
Ms Chao told the South China Morning Post that her father has snubbed her several attempts to arrange a meeting between him and Ms Eav.
“Daddy’s attempts to find me a husband imply that he did not see Sean like every other person. It’s quite hard for Sean.”
As for the letter she wrote, Ms Chao said she hopes it would clarify misunderstandings about her father, saying, “He just has a special sense of humour. He wasn’t malicious when he made the offer.
“Daddy won’t see the comments online saying he is crazy, but as his daughter, I feel I should stand up for him.”
In another interview with The Times, she said that she would only marry a man if her father does the same.
“Since Dad thinks it’s so easy for me to switch from gay to straight, I should just leave it for him to demonstrate. I think I’ll marry a man when he marries a man.”
Meanwhile, English actor Sacha Baron Cohen is reportedly working on a movie inspired by the billionaire’s marriage bounty proposal, as per the Associated Press.