adminChao Sze-tsung, made the offer after his daughter Gigi married her girlfriend of seven years Seab Eav in France.
And surprise, surprise, the offers have already started arriving thick and fast from men all over the globe.
Refusing to accept the gay union, the property and shipping tycoon pledged the fortune to any potential male suitor able to walk Gigi down the aisle at a traditional wedding.
But his daughter, a 33-year-old University of Manchester graduate said she thought the HKD500 million Hong Kong dollar offer —the equivalent of £39,8 million — was ‘quite entertaining’.
“War veterans from the US, someone from Ethiopia, from Istanbul, South America, Portugal, really just from all over the world,” she said.
One American suitor wrote: “I’m interested in the offer. I am a male person, who also happens to be gay.”
Another put up his brother, a body double to George Clooney in the 2008 film Leatherheads, as a potential mate.
Lesbian Gigi Chao has laughed off her father Hong Kong tycoon Cecil Chao Sze-tsung’s £40million offer to find her a husband
Cecil Chao, chairman of Hong Kong property developer Cheuk Nang Holdings
The hopefuls, however, seem to be wasting their time.
Miss Chao insists she will not be ditching her partner — no matter the quality of man her father’s millions can buy.
Hong Kong billionaire Mr Chao, 76 — who claims to have slept with 10 000 women — has refused to accept his daughter’s sexuality, hence his ‘marriage bounty’.
“My father has an interesting interpretation of me,” said Mrs Chao, a Manchester University graduate.
“Homosexuality is still an uncomfortable issue for many people.”
She refused to confirm reports of her nuptials on April 4, stating: ‘I’m not afraid to admit anything. But I do want to respect my parents.
“Let time be the witness.”
“I don’t mind whether he is rich or poor — the important thing is that he is generous and kind-hearted,’ he said of the ideal husband for his daughter.
“Gigi is a very good woman with both talents and looks. She is devoted to her parents, is generous and does volunteer work,” he told the South China Morning Post.
Same-sex marriages are not recognised in Hong Kong.
According to reports, the spat between Mr Chao and his daughter erupted last week when she announced at an event in Beijing that she tied the knot with her long-term lover, Sean Eav, five months ago.
A regular on the city’s social circuit and in celebrity magazines, Mr Chao has never been married. Gigi is the oldest of his three children with three mothers.
In addition to the dowry, he has also offered to start his potential son-in-law up in his own business.
He said the prize money was ‘an inducement to attract someone who has the talent, but not the capital, to start his own business’.
Miss Chao graduated from university in 1999 with a degree in architecture. She went on to work for two years with prominent British architect Sir Terry Farrell. — Daily Mail.
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