A Hong Kong billionaire's daughter has been bombarded with marriage proposals, and even nude photographs, from as far afield as Oklahoma, Nigeria and Bulgaria after her father offered HKD 500 million (Rs 340 crore) to the man who could woo her.
Gigi Chao, daughter of property tycoon Cecil Chao, entered a civil partnership with her girlfriend in a ceremony in Paris five months ago.
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But Chao has said that reports of his daughter’s civil ceremony are ‘false’. He announced the 500 million Hong Kong Dollar dowry this week.
Speaking yesterday, Gigi said she had received about 200 proposals and that the number following her on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook had jumped by 1,500 since her father’s announcement.
“It’s ridiculous. I can’t sort out the serious proposals from the half-hearted ones. I can’t make head or tail of it,” she said.
Gigi said they included gentlemen who said they were looking for love and asked her out on a date, as well as some less conventional introductions. Some have attached nude photos of themselves or provided information about their finances.
“Some of them had obviously done their research, you know, gone on my Facebook and looked at my background,” she said. “Some of them are quite poetic.”
But far from feeling angry at her father, she said she was “touched”. “At first I was entertained by it, and then that entertainment turned into the realisation and conviction that I am a really lucky girl to have such a loving daddy, because it’s really sweet of him to do something like this,” she said.
Gigi said that she loved her father and they had a good relationship.
200
Number of proposals Gigi has received after her father posted the bountyu00a0