Hong Kong billionaire Cecil Chao offered a dowry of £40 million to any man bold enough to change the homosexuality of his daughter. After 20,000 suitors, Gigi, the daughter, was not yet convinced, and the billionaire doubled the offer to HK$1 billion.

He believes his daughter is ‘still single’ despite her being married for two years to Sean Eav, her long-term partner. In an interview with a Malaysian newspaper, he said that all he wanted was for his daughter to have a “good marriage and children” and that he was not trying to interfere with her private life.

Gigi Chao and her partner, Sean Eav, have been together for nine years and married in Paris in 2012. “I’m not saying that she’s not okay to be gay,” the billionaire 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, however, said that although her father’s quest had left her wife distraught, she chose to ignore it. She even offered to conform to his terms, provided the suitor donated a large chunk of the cash to charity and didn’t mind her marital status.

“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.

“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.”

Ms. Chao and Sean got married in Paris at a church ceremony in early 2012. She informed her father about the wedding, which left him ‘surprised and unpleasantly shocked,’ and he advised her not to go public about it. After the tabloids in Hong Kong reported on their union, her father promised a fortune of one million HKD to any potential male who could walk his daughter down the aisle.

Offers from war veterans, Ethiopia, South America, Istanbul, Portugal, and many other parts of the world poured in after Cecil Chao made the offer. 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, is also the founder of the Faith in Love Foundation, an anti-poverty charity, and a part-time pilot. She says she knows her father’s actions are out of concern and love.

“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.”

[source:www.dailymail.co.uk]