Male Celebrities and Their Wealthy Wives
In a reversal of the traditional Cinderella romance, numerous Chinese celebrities are marrying women whose wealth and stature is no less prominent than, and may even be above, their own.
The most-high profile marriages that come to mind include Andy Lau (劉德華), Chow Yun Fat (周潤發), Donnie Yen (甄子丹), Daniel Wu (吳彥祖), and Vanness Wu (吳建豪).
Andy kept his relationship and subsequent marriage to Carol Chu (朱麗倩) a secret for years, suffering much public backlash. Carol’s father was a Malaysian real estate businessman and her mother was a prominent socialite, while her uncle Vincent Tan (陳志遠) is the Chairman of Berjaya Group, one of the biggest listed companies in Malaysia. When 24-year-old Andy first met 18-year-old Carol in 1986, it was somewhat of an uneven match, as Andy had fame but little financial means. Now that Andy is both famous and wealthy, he can finally stand as an equal to Carol.
Chow Yun Fat’s wife Jasmine Tan (陳薈蓮) is the daughter of Jack Tan (陳首林), one of Singapore’s most prominent businessmen. After a scandalous past, including a short-lived first marriage with actress Candice Yu (余安安), Chow Yun Fat settled down after he married Jasmine, who subsequently became his business manager. Although childless, the couple remains happily married after being together for nearly 30 years.
Similar to Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen suffered from a failed first marriage prior to meeting the love of his life, Cecilia Wang (汪詩詩). The Toronto beauty queen hails from a family that runs a jewelry business in Canada, and had the nickname “Diamond Princess” before she married Donnie in 2003.
Daniel Wu’s wife Lisa S., is not only a supermodel but also the stepdaughter of Gary Selesner, the President of Caesars Palace, a major Las Vegas casino. The couple wed in South Africa in 2010 and have a one-year-old daughter named Raven.
Former F4 member, Vanness Wu’s romance with Arissa Cheo (石貞善), the daughter of a prominent Indonesian-Chinese family with a multi-billion business in the oil industry, was initially met with family disapproval due to the differences in their financial backgrounds. The couple met in 2006 and separated for three years before deciding to give their love a second chance in 2010. Vanness and Arissa held a lavish wedding in Los Angeles in November 2013.
This November, TVB actor Lai Lok Yi (黎諾懿) and businesswoman Nicole Lee (李潔瑩) got married in a high-profile wedding. Nichole’s family runs a $500 million HKD business empire founded on beauty salons. Although Lok Yi’s status at TVB has become more prominent in recent years, the couple still has a wide financial gap to close. Lok Yi did not seem to mind the negative gossip over their marriage union and said, “There’s not much that can be done. As long as my wife and in-laws understand, I can only work harder to close the gap between our financial disparity.”
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Jingles for JayneStars.com.
hong kong men sure love soft rice
Men with a lesser financial standing and therefore greater financial disparity with their respective spouses does not necessarily mean they are dependent. If we wanted to turn your words around, then wealthy women would only be allowed to marry into equally – if not more – wealthy families. A disappointing and backwards era of class discrimination.
Lol SRKs
Dangit. You beat me to it.
These are the true SRKs!!
What does soft rice mean?
it’s a degratory term of when a man depends on a woman’s money to live
I feel the article kinda exaggerated the wealth of the women’s family , and lowered the status of the men actors. If all 4 of those actors didn’t marry those rich daddy girls , they would still do just as fine or maybe even better today. And the father can have more than 1 daughter or son so the assets aren’t going to the actors.
The original article in Chinese actually said that these actors made it on this own despite marrying rich wives. It is just that readers gave them the SRK labels.
None of the HK actors are eating soft rice! Just because their wives come from wealthy families, it doesn’t mean they are wealthy themselves. The four men are also constantly working so they obviously don’t depend on their wives financially. I think the only soft rice king in recent years is Joel Chan. He stopped working as soon as he met Florinda Ho and spent over a year vacationing with her and catering to her every whim.
Discrimination to both men and women. SRK or Gold digger. Which one is worse off?
The problem is those actors aren’t srk’s.
But are they SRK??
Pardon my asking, but may I know what SRK means? These men are accused of “eating soft rice” but they have done well for themselves in the end and I don’t think they feel anywhere inferior to their wives.
SRK = Soft Rice King
Agree with P.Tan those actors can do fine or even better without there wives. There not SRK
No Ray Lui/呂良偉?
Wealthy women want successful men too? Is there such thing as wealthy gold-diggers? Hmmm… LOL 🙂
No Carlos Ng and Raymond Wong?
Which Raymond Wong ?
Raymond Wong Ho Yin’s wife is pretty well off when he first started in ATV.
Bobby Au Yeung’s wife comes from the Fu family which basically ruled Macau’s casinos before Stanley Ho joined the picture.
Who’s Carlos’ wife?
Lawrence Ng’s first wife was pretty rich in thailand back then.
Carlos’ wife is the daughter of the chairman of 其士國際集團有限公司
Chevalier International Holdings Limited
there is this saying 木门对木门.
No Bobby Au Yeung and Frankie Lam?
bobby’s wife is super rich? and frankie’s to?? :O
Bobby’s wife background has been revealed by Elizabeth in her comments above. Frankie’s wife is Kenix Kwok whose family owns several companies that manufacture plastic products.
josie ho husband too!
i hate my life 🙁
Nothing wrong to have a wife who is richer as long as the hubby works and does not live upon her.
yup…the husband must be hardworking and support his wife whether she is rich or not.
Yes agree.
If the husband is capable, but looks to OWN a huge part of his partner’s sizeable assets and property … than in my books he is a SRK and gold digger.
The male and female roles of a SRK and golddigger are imbalanced.
The gold-digging female will stick around as long as the money and lifestyle is there, for her. More so if they have kids together.
The gold-digging male may NOT stick around once he gets his share, because he has younger options coming along + money.
The endurance test. If a couple grow old together without the dude hankering after HIS share of the assets or expecting the female to pay and pay for everything, then he gets to enjoy all the spoils.
@nomad 822,
Totally agree!!!
Can’t stand boys/men who extend their hand out to women for $$$$. How embarrassing!!!
>>>the husband must be hardworking and support his wife whether she is rich or not.
Marriage and commitment is about going ‘through thick or thin’. And fate is strange = money comes, money can also go suddenly. (the wealthy family in the Korean Sewol tragedy is an example of how wealth/power can change suddenly).
Worse for wealthy WOMEN – women in general, wealthy or not have a limited shelf life.
HOW a guy lives off his wealthy wife can be pretty subtle.
– enjoying the lifestyle/perks money, networking connections can bring?
It also all boils down to GREED.
Even a capable and intelligent working guy who has the ability to make $5million on his own may hanker after the way easier option of wanting half of his wealthy wife’s asset base of $50 million. It’s a faster and easier way to $25 million.
SRK situation or not?
At the end of the day – it’s the endurance test of sincerity.
If the dude is still there at 70 and holding her hand for the senior age doctor’s visits – sure, he’s entitled to his half of the assets.
“If the dude is still there at 70 and holding her hand for the senior age doctor’s visits – sure, he’s entitled to his half of the assets.”
Yep, but then, in this case, I doubt that he’s cares THAT MUCH about his half of the assets because she’s probably worth a whole lot more to him. 🙂
Sounds like a retired 90-yo doctor I know. He opens the car door for her. And, the couple holds hands everywhere.
@MW, lol, why does Joel Chan come to my mind? He’s one shameless slipper rice king!
@anon,
When society is already in men’s favor, the mental image of boys/men extending their hand out to women for $$$$ is cringeworthy.
I find it a bit strange that it is ok for women to be financially dependent on the guys but it is not ok for the guys to be dependent on the women. I think that is the very old school traditional way of thinking. These days many women are the breadwinners and main providers while in some cases the guys are the ones that take care of the kids and all. It depends on the case of course. Girls who marry rich guys are deemed as gold diggers while guys who marry rich girls are regarded as soft rice eaters. It is so hard to please everyone.
But anyways,I feel regardless if it is the guy it girl, they must all work and have their own career and not become too dependent on anyone. It is also embarrassing for a woman to ask money from her husband too. Times are now different but I guess many are still stuck in the old world where the guys are the sole providers while the women are stay at home housewives.
@ HTS:
No
NOT ok both ways.
All I am saying is comparing wealthy man/woman, the woman has more to lose as she has limited shelf-life.
Men with very fat wallets will still have staying power with their gold-diggers.
It’s foolish for a woman (whether gold-digger or not) to give it all up and cut herself off – to be the all sacrificing person to take on the role of FREE housekeeper + fulltime nanny/childcare all in one package.
There’s no price tag to being fulltime homemaker either = but there’s everything to lose trying to claw back up into the work crowd after any childminding hiatus.
Cecilia Cheung is one prime example.
There’re no guarantees in life.
Vivian Lai who gave everything up (ie her career and future opportunities) … to become full time mom and who also put in time to manage the family business (empty director titles are really useless things) …
Outside of age and experience, she got nothing out of her deal. Despite marrying into ‘chaebol crowd’ (ie the wealthy rich’ higher echelon of HK society.
Her husband’s family own that tacky brand Goldlion.
Homemaker contributions are the worst, and shaves off years of valuable ‘experience’.
Seamless job, and unpaid.
It goes both ways – for househusbands, or housewives.
I am NOT talking about the likes of Kathy Tsui (gold-digger?) … whose idea of homemaker is to plaster her Weibo or FB with latest Hermes limited edition, lunch at Cova or deck her kids in the latest Gucci offerings.
I am sure she has her future covered, in event of.
dag…Cecilia Wang is hot! Candice Yu wasn’t bad either at her prime.
all of those women got money handed down to them. lol.
Some people already grew up rich. However, the money is their parent’s/ grand parent’s money not theirs. . They are just living off it. Some people are lucky to be born with silver spoons in their mouth. Sad that rich people think that they are better than those that don’t have the same wealth. more respect to the celebrities that work their way to the top and earn their own money.
I agree that some are lucky to inherit wealth so most tend to take it fir granted and look down on others who are a lot less fortunate, I used to know a couple like that. They were not bad people but did not understand the financial difficulties that most must endure and how hard people work to even get a decent living while they just sit back enjoy what their parents and grandparents left for them.
Chow Yun Fat might be wealthy but he’s very humble and nice when I saw him on movie set he took pics with his fans ..he’s the greatest and it don’t matter his wife is wealthy he doesnt act snobby rich like others…
Yes.I agree. He’s always my idol and favorite actor of all time. His smile is always very warm.
chow yun fat is a natural. he is himself and doesn’t act snobbish. saw him when he promoted a movie in Singapore.
Totally down to earth, and Mr Chow also takes the subway.
Not elevate himself to Porsche or Ferrari status because he has a rich wife backing him.
His wife btw, got better and better looking after marriage. Dresses and packages herself way better too.
Mrs Chow is a rich girl from young. As her husband’s manager, she manages all his contracts and liaises with top guns. so maybe that’s why she dresses nicer too.
Vanessa wu’s wife is Singaporean not indon.
All of these guys, with exception to Andy lau, treat their wives exceptionally well. Coincidence?
you’re an idiot. don’t open your mouth if you don’t anything. dont’ read too much tabloid. it affects your perception of others.