Clare Fong Defends Gallen Lo Amidst Scandalous Rumors
Above: Gallen Lo and Clare Fong were married for ten years before divorcing in 2008.
Clare Fong (方敏儀) quickly came to Gallen Lo’s (羅嘉良) defense when a tabloid magazine accused her ex-husband for neglecting responsibility in the funeral arrangements of his father, who passed away in early April. The death of Gallen’s father occurred one week before the birth of Gallen’s daughter, Sela, from his second marriage with mainland actress Sophie Su (蘇岩). Gallen was blasted for being absent from his own father’s wake, while celebrating his daughter’s birth happily.
“When [Gallen’s] own grandfather passed away, his father was not present at his wake due to work. Gallen was given the responsibility to oversee the necessary funeral arrangements himself. The same situation is happening now. Gallen could not attend his father’s wake because he had work obligations. His family understands,” said Clare.
She blasted the tabloid’s claims and told the press that Gallen is “as filial as one can be.” She said, “By Lunar New Year, his father had already been staying at the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital for over a month. After his conditions improved, he was transferred to a public hospital as a stepping stone for him to enter a sanatorium. Before the arrangements came through, he suddenly passed away. The medical bill at Hong Kong Baptist was $700,000 HKD, and it all came out of Gallen’s pocket.”
Clare was flabbergasted at the reports that accused Gallen for blackmailing Clare $6,000 HKD a month in her alimony so she could “pretend” to be friends with Gallen’s current wife, Sophie Su (苏岩). “Absolutely ridiculous! Our son is going into high school now and tuition is expensive. He took the liberty to increase my alimony.” Clare declined to elaborate how much more Gallen had paid her, but said, “He just had a daughter so there would be more expenses on his part. He is trying.”
Married for ten years, Gallen and Clare separated in 2008. They have a 14-year-old son, Yu Shing.
Clare said that she has learned to let things go over the years. Although their love is over, they still care about each other. Maintaining a good relationship is also best for their son.
Source: Apple Daily
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
First, whatever work obligation, there is compassionate leave so that is total BS.
Secondly, since ex wife who has most reason to feel disgruntled but is defending him so passionately I can only say perhaps the accusations against Gallen were unfair.
I totally agree with you Funn
AGREE. People don’t know him and don’t know what he is thinking or feeling. his father just died. back off and have some respect.
It seems that work is an excused that runs down through Gallen’s family.
And frankly, work, to some people, is everything.
agreed with how work, to some people, is everything. Just look at Eric Tsang and his way to treat his children.
Well he took days off to celebrate birth of his daughter so obviously work is not everything to him. He has his priority and from the look of it, his dad is definitely low on his list.
It is sad that work seems to be everything to some people. My own cousin did not go to the funeral of his grandma(my great aunt) and many were mad at him. He said it was because of work but no one in our family excused him for it… It is sad that many are using work as an excuse for the wrong reasons.
Were they unfair when she didn’t even deny them?
In actuality, who knows if she is disgruntled? What if she still loves him and wants to protect him? What if she’s dependent on his goodwill?
She is a good Mum and her priorit is to look after the welfare and protect her son and that is what she is doing!
Agree.. Seem like even after the divorce they have a good relationship. Must be since they still share a son.
I think they have a stronger relationship as friends,. After all she was with him for so many years. Perhaps she remained civil for son’s sake but I think she herself has moved on a long time ago hence she is able to be civil.
Work obligations over attending one’s own father’s wake? Agree with Funn Lim that excuse is so totally BS!!
Agreed. If he was that busy with work, how did he find time to post pics on his weibo?
It’s karma!
His father did not attend his grandfather’s funeral….
He did not attend his father’s funeral…..
Next, his son may not attend his funeral…
ALL KARMA
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to CLARE.
You are the Greatest MUM in your son’s world.
My salute to you Clare. You have done a good deed to sent off your FIL. You have rip great karma.
I wish you happiness, best wishes and may your son be filial to you for your sacrifice.
Guys, can we please give more praise and courage to Claire.
Totally agree with the above…
I saw him twice late last year at Lane Crawford IFC shopping by himself. He must really earn a lot to pay the hospital bills, son’s tuition and second family obligations, if he can shop at Lane crawford..
What a good ex-wife Clare is. Gallen does not have the luck to keep such a good woman as his wife forever.
wow nice and very true. He is attracted to someone younger and prettier.
Yup, I guess the elders can called him a modern day ‘ Chen Sai Mei ‘ haaha LOL
Work is not a good excuse for not attending his dad’s funeral.
work obligations is more important than your father’s funeral?
gallen’s ex wife seems nice and classy for still standing up to defend gallen. but i’ve seen mothers who do this only because they don’t want to talk bad about their child’s father in front of the child. she seems to be evasive about gallen’s financial supports however.
I don’t know why but I have a feeling that he might gave her money to do these things
People have their own preconceptions. Nothing Gallen says or Clare says will change any of your minds. I’d rather choose to believe what Clare says is true and that they still have a good relationship than to speculate that Clare is being bribed to defend Gallen.
I think Clare is just too nice and simple-minded and Gallen Lo took advantage of her nice and sincere personality.
I believe what she said is true too. A) They have a good relationship which naturally would make her inclined to defend him and B) she didn’t deny the allegations that he left his responsibilities to his son. Hence, no one is prejudiced against him when they think he’s unfilial for not taking care of his father’s funeral because she admitted to exactly that. In fact, she made it worse by claiming “work obligations”.
She said that he tried to handle the situation the best he could. He was given the responsibility while working.
And I’m not defending him. I’m trying to stop her words from being twisted negatively.
Most people are given that kind of responsibility while working. Other people with much less resources can handle it but Gallen is a special snowflake?
Her words are not being twisted. She cited work obligations and apparently they have a tradition for that in Gallen’s family. That doesn’t mean other people can’t disagree that work should come before your father – whether we are talking about Gallen or Gallen’s father. However, if the rest of your family was dependent on your work for survival, I could see why work would have to come before anything else. But someone like Gallen can most certainly afford to take some days off and did apparently according to someone above, for his daughter’s birth.
He could be mourning his father privately. As outsiders, we don’t know what’s really happening.
I agree that the rich are expected to hold elaborate funerals. But what’s the point? To pay your respect? To ask friends to pay respect? Maybe Gallen doesn’t want to hold a funeral. Funerals can be held privately. I don’t know because I’m an outsider.
Not just the rich but even middle class will hold sorta elaborate funeral, more so for Chinese who believes in I suppose those gods/Taos? Not Buddhism. Yes he is to mourn privately but as the eldest son, he has an important duty to perform the rites which he can’t be excused unless he couldn’t make it for a very good reason. Unless he is Christian or not of the same faith as his dad. But even then he is expected to do it. That is why Chinese places importance on a son to what’s the word? Carry bucket of water? I think his excuse given by his ex wife is pretty lame. I believe there must be a better reason except maybe this article did not translate or she did not elaborate.
Again, even if he was filming, the production will understandably stop a day for him to perform those final rites.
“Maybe Gallen doesn’t want to hold a funeral. ”
Unless his father specifically said so, if Gallen had decided to that on his own, believe me, he will be labeled unfilial. So I don’t think that’s the reason.
Is he a Christian or of another faith?
@ lise
It has nothing to do with whether the rich are expected to have elaborate funerals. It has to do with the obligations that comes with being the eldest son. The Chinese people believe in this, hence he is seen as unfilial for prioritising work before his father. The only excuse that people would understand if his family depended on him working, as is most certainly not the case with Gallen. Frankly, he can afford to pay people to do all the work and he only needed to attend and carry the picture or the burning thing they use, receve guests etc. and he left these very simple obligations to his son. That is what’s wrong.
Gallen doesn’t want to hold a funeral? The funeral is for his father and family’s sake, not just him. Even if he does not want to, it is his duty to do it anyway. Anything else is selfish.
Yup..advo and Funn are right…it has nothing to do with being rich or holding an elaborate funeral or not…it’s a cultural thing that, like it or not, is part of one’s obligation in a Chinese family (especially a traditional Chinese family). That’s why it’s hard to blame people for criticizing Gallen as being ‘unfilial’ in this case because it does look like he shirked his responsibility.
And like others have said, the ‘work obligations’ excuse is definitely lame because most jobs have a provision for bereavement (death in the family) and even if they don’t, I’m sure the production crew would not fault him for taking a day off to attend the funeral. Heck, when my grandmother passed away, my brother look 1 week UNPAID LEAVE from his new job to fly back to HK to attend the funeral (since he’s the only grandson in the family) — if us ordinary people can do it, then those with better financial means should certainly be able to do it!
But there is sort of a tradition of the same thing (not attending) in the family. Own father did that to his grandfather.
It’s hard to blame someone when they learned a bad habit or something from their parents.
It is very ‘big’ of his ex-wife to do such a nice thing for Gallen. It’s a pity that Gallen fell for a younger, prettier actress.
I’m sure Gallen would have had his reasons… whether it be superstition between funeral and birth clashing; especially in old people (perhaps his father’s mind) that black and red events should not clash etc (fear of bad luck).
Either way, it must be difficult for all parties involved… it seems unfair that the media has branded him so harshly.
(I do agree that ‘work commitments’ is a terrible excuse. When my grandfather passed away suddenly; i had to have my secretary cancel two weeks of patient cases and take a flight asap back to HK to prepare and do the eulogy)
In the previous article, although his press statement was described as a “denial”, he didn’t deny what the tabloid reported. And here his wife doesn’t deny that he was a no show at his father’s wake. It was probably not the intent, but his wife’s remarks only confirm that she is the better person. Almost any employer — except the most inhumane — would give you time off for your own father’s wake. He is not a low level actor. So we can only conclude that his work and his daughter’s birth were more important to him than showing filial respect at his father’s wake.
Claire is smart and came to the defense of Galen. Of course, it is better to be in good relations after the divorce. Definitely less stress and what else could she do? Crying, complaining and being bitter will not solve the situation as they are already divorced and Galen has found a replacement. Reading between the lines, she didn’t want to break her rice-bowl while still needing his alimony/child support funds coming in to maintain her lifestyle and caring for their son.
It is not nice to think of Clare that way. Maybe she is a very nice and sincere woman who does not want her son to think that he has a disrespectful father.
I really feel that Gallen should be shot to death! Ask him to imagine what if he passed away and his own Made with China woman daughter is giving excuses not to attend his wake! How would he feel?