Late Casino King’s Daughter Josie Ho Says Life As A Crazy Rich Asian Only “Revolves Around Central, Yachts, & The Golf Club"

The recent engagement of late Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho's daughter Florinda Ho, 33, to fireman Douglas Wong, 29, has generated quite a bit of buzz in Hong Kong.

There was talk about the proposal, and also how much Douglas makes a month and the couple’s vastly different socioeconomic statuses.

The media also compared their relationship to that of Florinda’s half-sister, actress-singer Josie Ho, 47, and her husband, model Conroy Chan, 49.

Josie, whose mum is Stanley’s second wife, Lucina Laam, has always had a rebellious streak.

Instead of following in the footsteps of her sisters who married into prominent families, she chose to marry the man she loved.

When Josie and Conroy tied the knot in 2003, many didn’t think highly of their relationship and the couple went through a rough patch.

The couple was dealt another blow in 2016 when Conroy suffered heart and liver problems.

Josie put her career on hold to take care of him and also employed a full-time nurse to help with his recovery. His medical bills were said to have cost tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

When it came to her career, she also preferred to march to the beat of her own drum.

Unlike her siblings who are highly educated, Josie didn’t go to university, preferring to carve out a career in showbiz.

With the help of her eldest sister Pansy, she managed to convince her dad to let her become a singer. She released her first album in 1994 and later went into acting.

Over the years, she has starred in numerous films in a career stretching back to 1994, making her breakthrough in 1999 action film Purple Storm. In 2004, she won the Best Supporting Actress for her role as a working girl in 2003 sex comedy Naked Ambition.

While most would be envious of her background, Josie said life as a crazy rich Asian isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

"Our world is so empty and narrow, limited to Central, yachts, and the golf club... Even if I were to join my father's company, I wouldn’t be able to manage the senior staff there. There was once I was at a gathering with rich people, there was a woman who said a luxury store had put aside a bag for her, even the stars don’t get to see it, so I said goodbye to those people,” she said.

And because her father’s Stanley Ho, few people in Hong Kong would cast her in their films and she would have to work three times as hard to prove herself.

True friends were also few and far between in their circle and Josie had to be wary of people who were out to take advantage of her.

She once revealed that she had tried to invest in a foreign film and the middleman went MIA after taking her money. She didn't even know the movie was released, and had to go to the Cannes Film Festival to attend the premiere on her own. Even the director had no idea she was one of the producers.

Photos: Josie Ho/Instagram