Michelle’s Yeoh’s Children: Meet Her Stepson, Plus Everything She’s Said About Her IVF Struggles
Michelle Yeoh #MichelleYeoh
Michelle Yeoh has been a beloved actress for years. In the 80s, she won the Miss Malaysia World contest and began an acting career shortly after representing the country in the Miss World pageant in 1983. Michelle, 60, has been a celebrated actress throughout her career from early roles in hits like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000 to her recent starring role in the critical hit Everything Everywhere All At Once in 2022, which has earned her a 2023 Golden Globe nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
Despite briefly stepping away from acting to start a family, Michelle actually has never had children of her own, but she does have one stepson. While she’s focused on her career for so long, the Memoirs of a Geisha star has been open about her efforts to have children of her own. Find out more about Michelle’s family here.
Michelle’s partner has an adult son
Michelle has been dating French motor racing executive Jean Todt, 76, since 2004. The pair got engaged the following year, but they have had an extremely long engagement. Nearly 18 years after they first got engaged, they’ve yet to exchange vows. Before meeting Michelle, Jean was married once before and has a son Nicolas, 45, who is also a motor car racing manager. As of 2019, Jean and Michelle owned a mansion in Geneva, Switzerland, where Nicolas lived close by, per Financial Times. It’s clear that the three of them are a very happy family, and Michelle has shared cute photos with her fiancé and his son on her Instagram. “With my Todt boys and the best dinner,” she wrote in a December 2020 post.
She was briefly married in the 90s
Early in her career, Michelle became romantically involved with Chinese businessman Dickson Poon. The couple tied the knot in 1988, and in 1990, Michelle decided to step away from acting to try to have a family. Her retirement was very short-lived, as she returned to the movie business with a role in 1992’s Supercop, per IMDb. Michelle and Dickson divorced that same year. Despite the split, Michelle called her ex a “wonderful man” in a March interview with Bustle. She also explained that her inability to have children was part of why she decided to end the marriage. “As it turned out, I was unable [to have children]. And if I’m being honest with myself, I didn’t want for us to be bitter 10 years down the road. Because in Asian families, people want to have sons and daughters [because] they are an extension and a legacy. And when you have the realization [that you can’t have kids], you have to deal with it. You deal with the curveballs that are thrown at you,” she told the outlet.
She’s been open about her journey with IVF
While Michelle wasn’t able to conceive with her first husband, she did try again with Jean. She was open about how she wanted to have kids and struggled with IVF treatment in a 2018 interview with You Magazine. ” I tried IVF, everything,” she told the outlet. “. I was desperate. I love kids and saw myself surrounded by them. But there’s only so much you can put your body and mind through. It comes to a stage where you have to accept it, move on and deal with the repercussions. And in a Chinese family, [having children] means a great deal.”
Despite not having any kids of her own, Michelle did reveal that she’s a godmother to her nieces and nephews, and she’s said that she still adores kids, and even helps her siblings when their kids won’t go to bed. “I adore children, but they need that kind of discipline,” she told You.