Chow Yun Fatt defends wife’s ‘plain looks’
HONG KONG: Veteran actor Chow Yun Fatt has defended his plain-looking wife in the face of detractors’ scorn, saying that he had chosen Jasmine for her inner beauty.
Instead of going for someone “glamorous to match his status’, Chow opted for the ordinarylooking Jasmine, a Singaporean.
It’s not too surprising, since Chow was from a simple background. His father drove taxis. In his teens, Chow used to herd goats on tiny Lamma Island.
On the nasty comments that Jasmine does not match his status, Chow said: “I’ve seen plenty of women who look gorgeous, so much so that they become run-of-the-mill. I chose my girlfriend based on inner beauty.”
What attracted him was Jasmine’s down-to-earth demeanour and gentleness. Chow’s pals are full of praise for her. They have described her as very gentle and very attentive.
For this reason, Chow uses her as his manager. She coordinates his schedule. They had married in 1987 but have remained childless after Jasmine suffered a miscarriage.
Before a meteoric rise to superstardom, Chow was a box office flop. Insiders used to wisecrack that once Chow appears in a movie, it’s doomed to fail. And the series of failures went on until the release of A Better Tomorrow in 1986. He has not looked back since.
Before hitting it off with Jasmine, Chow had dated actress Idy Chan. He then married Candice Yu, but it collapsed after just nine months.
After the failed romances, Chow was understandably cautious about relationships. In fact, at one stage while courting Jasmine, he told her: “You must remember, I will not marry you.”
Jasmine, the daughter of a wealthy Singaporean businessman, had to make many changes. At the start of their romance, he was just a B-lister.
Initially, she too was wary of Chow, after hearing negative rumours about him.
But Chow, despite what he had said, kept up the pursuit with dates and love letters over a twoyear period.
In 1986, she followed him to New York for his on-location filming for An Autumn’s Tale.
On a nondescript evening after late-night filming, he suddenly said, “Why don’t we get married?”
The next day, they did just that, without any fancy rings, flowers, or extravagant ceremony.
Come to think of it, that spartan arrangement mirrored Chow’s nondescript life as a goatherd on Lamma Island – the only difference being he did not have to woo her till the cows came home.
I’ve seen plenty of women who look gorgeous, so much so that they become run-of-the-mill. I chose my girlfriend based on inner beauty. Chow Yun Fatt, veteran actor