Zhu Houren says Christopher Lee was 'scared of wife' even before marriage

Is it fear or respect?

In a recent episode of Dishing with Chris Lee, host and local actor Christopher Lee asked his guests Zhu Houren, Chen Shucheng, Richard Low and Marcus Chin if they are afraid of their wives.

"Actually, we men are not afraid of our wives at home, we respect them," added Christopher, 52, who has been married to actress Fann Wong, 53, since 2009.

Veteran actor Houren, 69, then teased: "It's okay to admit that you are afraid of your wife."

"So you're afraid of your wife?" Christopher fired back.

"I noticed that you were terribly afraid of her (Fann) before you even pursued her," Houren remarked, to which Christopher promptly rubbished. 

Houren also talked about the time when they were filming The Return of the Condor Heroes (1998) in Beijing, and claimed that Christoper could often be seen skipping rope along the hotel room corridors just to get Fann's attention.

Describing how Fann loved cooking desserts at the time, he joked: "She gave me red bean soup and green bean soup, but I saw a pot of something 'more expensive'  —turns out it was meant for that rope-skipper."

'I was the ugliest, poorest and most hideous'

Last week, Fann was asked how Christopher wooed her and she shared that they started off as friends who got to know each other better over time.

"He didn't really woo me in any specific way, he was just very patient with me," she wrote in a post on Xiaohongshu, adding that they got together eventually because of fate occurring at the right time.

On Dishing with Chris Lee, Christopher turned the question to the actors, and Houren, 69, piped up first.

"I wooed my wife when she was 15 years old. She was still underaged... I was 21 years old then. She came from Indonesia to Singapore for a holiday and stayed opposite my house," he shared, adding that they wed 10 years later.

Richard, 72, said he got to know his wife through a drama class at Rediffusion. 

"Is your wife an actor too?" asked a surprised Christopher.

"She is! Before I signed a contract with Mediacorp, they already wanted to sign her as a host," said Richard, later adding that she didn't end up joining the industry after they tied the knot.

"I won her over with my sincerity. Out of all the people who were wooing her, I was the worst of the lot. I was the ugliest, poorest and most hideous... Those fools in Rediffusion were my defeated opponents, I don't remember their names anymore," he continued in jest, leading Christopher to burst out laughing.

Marcus, 70, on the other hand, stated that he could never win over anyone with his credentials. "It's always the other party who approaches me. They'll look for me," shared the host, who met his girlfriend of over 10 years at Golden Age Talentime.

He joked: "Back then whenever I went out with Shucheng, he'd get the girls but I never did. He didn't even let me have the remaining ones. He didn't even give me any leftovers."

Shucheng, 74, met his wife, former actress Huang Peiru, 63, on the set of the 1984 drama The Awakening. They starred as a married couple in the drama.

"She treated me like a big brother, I was much older than her. I'd try to get close to her and tell her how to act for certain scenes. That was how I wooed her," Shucheng revealed.

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