Stanley Ho Hung-sun is perhaps the best-known man in the region to openly declare he has four wives.
The father of 17 children, Ho changed the four women’s lives when he teamed up with them.
Ho’s first wife, Clementina Leitao, came from a prestigious family in Portugal and was known as the ‘greatest beauty in Macau’. Leitao’s grandfather was a lawyer and in the 1940s was Macau’s only notary public.
Ho fell in love at first sight with Leitao and they were married in 1942. The couple had four children – Robert, Jane, Angela and Deborah. Leitao’s health deteriorated in the 1970s and she suffered partial memory loss after a car accident in 1973. She was dealt another blow when Robert and his wife died in a car accident in 1981.
Leitao then required round-the-clock nursing care and was served by Ina Chan Un Chan, who became Ho’s third wife. Leitao died in 2004.
In the late 1950s, Ho developed a relationship with Lucina Laam King-ying, daughter of a Chinese soldier who fought in the war against Japan. They were legally married in 1962 in Hong Kong, which didn’t ban polygamy until 1971.
Laam’s children went on to join the tycoon’s businesses. Pansy, Daisy and Maisy hold senior positions with Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM), Shun Tak Holdings and MGM Macau, and Lawrence is Melco International Development chairman. Josie is an actress.
Ina Chan, wife No 3, became a nurse after graduating from Macau’s Sacred Heart Canossian College. She met the magnate when she was hired to take care of Leitao. Her status as the third wife was consolidated in 1985 when Ho bought her two apartments in Repulse Bay. She had three children – Florinda, Laurinda and Orlando. Chan is a vice-chairwoman of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals.
Angela Leong On-kei, who has been regarded as Ho’s fourth wife since the late 1990s, was born in Guangzhou and was a dancer in a troupe. She met Ho in 1988 when they danced together at a private ball. She gave birth to five children – Sabrina, Arnaldo, Mario, Alice and Ho Yau-kai.
Leong is the managing director of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM)’s Macau subsidiary and has been a director of Po Leung Kuk since 2005.
Ho’s family has been closely involved in mainland politics. The tycoon is a member of the standing committee of the national Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China’s top political advisory body.
Leong is a delegate to the Jiangxi provincial CPPCC and that of the Guangdong city of Zhuhai. Chan serves at the Guangdong provincial CPPCC. Pansy, Daisy and Lawrence Ho are delegates to various municipal CPPCCs.
Leong is also a directly elected member of Macau’s Legislative Council.
Source : SCMP