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Michelle Yeoh: the woman behind the icon – who is the Oscar-tipped actress dating, which millionaire Hong Kong tycoon was she married to, and does the Crazy Rich Asians star have any children?

Favourite to win best actress at the 2023 Academy Awards, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh is having her best years after 60. Photo: @michelleyeoh_official/Instagram
Michelle Yeoh is living her best life at the age of 60. The renowned Malaysian actress and former Bond girl first cut her teeth on Hong Kong action films during the city’s golden era of the 1980s and 1990s. Today, she is sitting pretty as favourite to win best actress at the 2023 Oscars for her revelatory performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once – even though the nominations have yet to be announced.
The role has already won her best actress nods at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice and Independent Spirit awards. If that wasn’t enough, she’s also bagged a role in James Cameron’s hotly anticipated Avatar series, playing the scientist Dr. Karina Mogue. While that character didn’t appear in the recently released The Way of Water, Yeoh has talked cryptically about shooting scenes for the five-part opus, which are now tipped to appear in 2024’s third installment.

Hollywood – interview

Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Photo: A24
This year just caps of an incredible run for Yeoh, who’s been making waves of later for her work in big-budget tent poles like Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
Michelle Yeoh at the opening night premiere of Everything Everywhere All at Once during the 2022 South by Southwest film festival in March 2022. Photo: Getty Images

Apart from her sterling career, what do you know about the Memoirs of Geisha actress’ personal life? Did you know that she is in a long-term relationship with a former F1 boss? Or that she was once married to a Hong Kong tycoon? Find out more …

Her romance with Dickson Poon

Michelle Yeoh and Dickson Poon at during their wedding reception in 1988. Photo: Oliver Tsang

When she was 28, Yeoh married Hong Kong magnate Sir Dickson Poon and stepped back from her film career for what could have been indefinitely. They had locked eyes on the set of Yes, Madam (1985), where Yeoh played the lead and Poon was the producer, per Glamour Buff. The two married in 1988 but divorced three years later.

In an interview with Bustle earlier this year, Yeoh disclosed that there was no bad blood between them now. “In 1988, I got married to a wonderful man called Dickson Poon. At 28 years old, I decided maybe it was time to settle down, get married, and have a new life,” she recalled.

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Michelle Yeoh and Dickson Poon cutting their wedding cake at the Hilton Hotel. Photo: Oliver Tsang

She added that it was her own decision to leave acting then, and not because of any pressure from reported millionaire Dickson and his family, “Because in Asia, it does happen where the women are [expected to be] a married housewife or a mother as soon as possible and not work. But at that time, it was my choice to leave because I’m not a good multitasker.”

Their marriage ultimately ended due to Yeoh’s inability to conceive. She said in the same interview that she didn’t want them to be bitter “10 years down the road” and opted for a divorce, before going back to acting.

Michelle Yeoh in a still from Police Story 3: Supercop. Photo: Golden Harvest
“I was very lucky because once I started my career in Hong Kong action films, I was embraced very quickly and given amazing opportunities. Then I got married, and when I came back out, my first movie was Supercop, and I couldn’t have asked for more,” she added.
Yeoh returned to the silver screen opposite Jackie Chan in Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992) and a couple of other action films before landing her first big Hollywood moment in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), opposite Pierce Brosnan.

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She has been engaged to Jean Todt since 2005, but the couple never married

Michelle Yeoh and Jean Todt. Photo: @michelleyeoh_official/Instagram

A decade after her first and only marriage, Yeoh met Jean Todt, the former president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (which oversees the Formula One races), at a tournament in Shanghai back in 2004. The two fell head over heels with each other and got engaged a year later, according to Town and Country magazine.

Michelle Yeoh, her fiancé Jean Todt and his son Nicolas. Photo: @michelleyeoh_official/Instagram

Yeoh said that she loves Todt’s sense of humour and his blue eyes, but they are not thinking of tying the knot any time soon.

She told the same publication recently: “He counts the number of days rather than the years. I’ll ask him, ‘What is the present for 6,725 days?’” she quipped.

Jean Todt and Michelle Yeoh at the Milan Fashion Week in 2015. Photo: Pierre Teyssot/Splash News/Corbis

Yeoh is also not shy about sharing her romance on social media. She has 1.1 million Instagram followers, and wasn’t afraid to celebrate her and Todt’s 6,000-day anniversary with them all back in 2020, with a moving post.

Todt, 76, also often shows his affection and pride for his fiancée. Back in August, he took to Twitter and congratulated Yeoh for receiving the honorary doctorate from the American Film Institute.

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Her struggles with IVF

Michelle Yeoh at the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007. Photo: Corbis

As with her marriage to Poon, Yeoh has not had any children with Todt, who has a 45-year-old son Nicolas from a previous relationship. The Lady opened up about never having biological children of her own, and shared her experience with IVF during the interview with You Magazine.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t. I tried IVF, everything. 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,” she said.

She is close to her step children and loves being a godmother

Michelle Yeoh with children. Photo: @michelleyeoh_official/Instagram

Yeoh is very close to ex-husband Poon’s daughter, Dee, and her brother’s children – she is godmother to both.

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“I’m very strict with my brother’s children. My sister-in-law will call me from Malaysia and tell me: ‘They won’t go to sleep.’ So, I’ll ask for them to be put on the phone and I say: “Go to sleep now!” and they do. I adore children, but they need that kind of discipline,” she told You Magazine.

Michelle Yeoh bonding with her extended family. Photo: @michelleyeoh_official/Instagram

Yeoh is also apparently close to her fiancé’s son, Nicolas. In a 2020 Instagram post she shared an adorable picture of the three of them together having a year-end meal, movingly writing, “With my Todt boys and the best dinner.”

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  • Everything Everywhere All At Once star Michelle Yeoh ended a three-year marriage to Hong Kong magnate Dickson Poon after she was unable to conceive
  • The former Bond Girl got engaged to former F1 boss Jean Todt in 2005, but the couple aren’t married and never had children – despite a gruelling IVF battle