Billionaire who offered £40million to anyone who could 'turn' his lesbian daughter straight doubles his offer after 20,000 would-be suitors failed
- Property magnate Cecil Chao now offers HKD$1m in 'dowry' for his daughter
- Gigi Chao, 34, fended off 20,000 suitors after the initial offer in 2012
- She may comply, if it's donated and he accepts that she already has a wife
- Gigi has been married to her long-term partner for nearly two years
PUBLISHED: 10:35 GMT, 23 January 2014 | UPDATED: 11:48 GMT, 23 January 2014
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The Hong Kong billionaire playboy who offered nearly £40million to any man who could turn his homosexual daughter straight, has now doubled the 'dowry'.
Cecil Chao raised the reward to HK$1million (£80million) after thousands of eligible bachelors failed to convince his daughter Gigi to marry any of them.
The 77-year-old property magnate insists that 34-year-old Gigi is 'still single' despite the fact that she married her long-term partner Sean Eav two years ago.
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Money talks: Cecil Chao has doubled the reward for any man who manages to convince his lesbian daughter Gigi to marry him, to HK$1million (£80million), despite the fact that she already has a wife
Mr Chao told a Malaysian newspaper that despite offering HK$500million, approximately £40million, and 20,000 men registering their interest in taking up the quest, Gigi is still not in a straight marriage.
He said that he did not want to interfere with his daughter’s private life, but that he wanted her to have 'a good marriage and children'.
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In response, Ms Chao said that although her wife had been left 'distraught' by her father's interview, she found it easier to ignore - even offering to comply with the terms, as long as the man in question donated a large part of the money to charity, and did not mind that she is already married.
'I don’t think my dad’s offering of any amount of money would be able to attract a man I would find attractive,' she told South China Morning Post.
Definitely not single: Gigi Chao, right, and her partner Sean Eav, have been together for nine years and married in Paris in 2012
In denial: Hong Kong billionaire Mr Chao, who claims to have slept with 10,000 women, still wants his daughter to marry a man - although he won't force her
Loving daughter: Ms Chao says she does not think her father is offering the bounty out of evil or spite, but rather that he does not understand that homosexuality cannot be changed as he is 'from another time'
'Alternatively, I would be happy to befriend any man willing to donate huge amounts of money to my charity Faith in Love, provided they don’t mind that I already have a wife.
'Third and lastly, thank you Daddy, I love you too.'
‘I'm not saying that she's not okay to be gay,’ Cecil Chao told ABC News 20/20 in October 2012.
‘I mean it's her own choice and her own tendency, but she should make sure she knows what she wants. Maybe what she wants today is different [than] what she wants in the future.’
Ms Chao married her long-term partner Sean in a church ceremony in Paris in early 2012, but it was not until news of their union was printed in the Hong Kong tabloids that her father promised the million HKD fortune to any potential male suitor able to walk Gigi down the aisle.
Ms Chao had already told her father about her wedding, and said he was ‘surprised and unpleasantly shocked,’ but urged her not to make it public.
Deal: Ms Chao offered to comply with the terms, as long as the man in question donated a large part of the 'reward' to her charity, and did not mind that she already has a wife
VIDEO: Gigi reads some of her marriage proposals... yes, she's still close with her father...
Marriage proposals flood in for Chinese lesbian
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When the plea for a man for Gigi spread over the world, the offers came pouring in.
‘War veterans from the US, someone from Ethiopia, from Istanbul, South America, Portugal, really just from all over the world,’ Ms Chao said.
'One American suitor wrote: "I’m interested in the offer. I am a male person, who also happens to be gay".'
Ms Chao, an executive director at her father’s property development company, part-time pilot, and founder of anti-poverty charity Faith in Love Foundation, has maintained throughout her father's persistent quest that she knows he is only doing it out of love and concern.
'I understand that he loves me, it’s just he’s from another time and it’s difficult for him to understand the plight of the LGBT.
'At the office it’s business as usual. At family gatherings we hug and dance. And we just agree to disagree on what marriage is and family is.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ffer-20-000-suitors-failed.html#ixzz2rEEGQBw7
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