By Li Hongmei

The lesbian daughter of a Hong Kong tycoon, who offered more than US$100 million to find her a male suitor, has issued a heartfelt open letter urging him to accept her sexuality.

In the letter, which starts "Dear Daddy," socialite Gigi Chao asked her father Cecil to treat her partner Sean Eav as "a normal, dignified human being." The couple has been together for nine years and is reported to have married in 2012 in France.

"I know it's difficult for you to understand how I could feel romantically attracted to a woman; I suppose I can't really explain it either. It just happens, peacefully and gently," she wrote in the letter, which was published yesterday in the South China Morning Post and circulated to other Hong Kong media.

Her plea came after property developer Chao, 77, who refuses to recognize that she is a lesbian, was reported last week to have doubled the "marriage bounty" on his daughter to HK$1 billion (US$128.8 million), after an initial offer of HK$500 million two years ago.

The first sum attracted 20,000 candidates, with the bizarre dowry attempt making international headlines.

In her letter, 33-year-old Gigi said she forgave her father because he was acting in her best interests. She also took responsibility for "misleading" him into thinking there might be other options for her.

"I'm sorry to mislead you to think I was only in a lesbian relationship because there was a shortage of good, suitable men in Hong Kong. There are plenty of good men. They are just not for me."

In a plaintive message to her dad, she told him of her sadness that he was unable to share in the life she had made for herself.

"My regret is that you have no idea how happy I am ... and there are aspects of my life that you don't share."