For his first Father’s Day celebration as a new dad last Sunday, Malaysia-born Mediacorp actor Shaun Chen finally revealed how his Malaysian wife Celine and his six-month-old daughter Nellie look like via an Instagram post.
He had insisted on maintaining their privacy since last October, when he first told the media about his marriage and her pregnancy.
But after much consideration, the 37-year-old feels it is “the right time” to reveal more about his family.
Chen married the former beautician, who is in her 20s, last July and they welcomed their first child last December.
Mother and child moved to Singapore in April from Alor Setar in Kedah, Malaysia, to be with him.
He told M at the press conference for the upcoming Channel 8 blockbuster drama The Dream Job yesterday: “I wanted my wife to have the freedom to tell people who her husband is or post on her own Instagram about our relationship.
“I didn’t want her to be in a difficult position where she has to lie to people about who her husband is. At least now she can give an answer.”
The Dream Job, which premieres on June 28 at 9pm, stars Chen as a lawyer who is in charge of helping a wealthy businessman (Hugo Ng) hire three people (Jeanette Aw, Rebecca Lim and Ian Fang) to be his “children” and help with his business.
Chen’s family photo, which was taken a few weeks ago by his sister-in-law, shows the trio wearing matching adidas T-shirts.
He said: “I saw the shirt on display at Suntec and there was a female and kid’s version. I thought it was very cute so I decided to buy matching outfits for my family…
“A lot of people have said (my daughter) looks like a boy because her hair hasn’t grown yet, but I don’t care.”
He giggled before saying: “It’s okay lah, when she grows up she will become pretty.”
There have been both positive and negative comments left on his Instagram post, but Chen told his wife to “just ignore” the mean ones like he does.
Thankfully, she is not at all bothered by any of the negativity and “can handle it”.
Despite his busy filming schedule, the doting dad cherishes his time with his daughter as she might not reciprocate his affection when she grows older.
“The first thing I do when I get home is kiss her – neck, cheeks and face. She will just sit quietly and let me kiss her. If I wait a few more years, I don’t think she will bother to give me the attention anymore,” he said.
This article was first published on June 22, 2016.
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