Hugh Grant Welcomes Baby Girl

[ManxMouse]

That's very true. Even though I don't much like him, I don't think it's shocking or horrifying for him to spend so little time. Beyond the financial support that he is obligated to, it's up to him what kind of father he is going to be, and how involved with the child. I hope he can manage to be a consistent and positive presence for the kid.

How harshly would a mother be judged if the tables were turned though? A man always seems to have the choice to offer nothing beyond financial support.

[sluce]

Hugh Grant (of all people!) gets a pass because he is only a mere Dad????

I am not giving Hugh a pass at all. The child is just 5 weeks old. We have no idea what visitation there has been to date. We only know that on this ONE day he visited for 45 minutes.

How harshly would a mother be judged if the tables were turned though? A man always seems to have the choice to offer nothing beyond financial support.

There is a little bit of a difference though. They are not married or even in a relationship anymore. She has the legal rights to make all decisions as to whether she wanted to give birth or abort. With that right comes responsibility to provide 100% support financially and emotionally. It is best when the father also wants to be involved but some provide only the court ordered financial support because they never wanted the kid to start. A woman who doesn't want a child has choices.

*smiles as that can of worms is opened..*

[Kittylady]

Hugh Grant (of all people!) gets a pass because he is only a mere Dad????

I wasn't giving him a pass as a 'mere dad'. He's not with the mother any more so to me a brief visit is acceptable right now. He took a break from filming, flew over from Germany, spent some time with the baby and left. Seems fair enough to me. His ex has her own home and her own life and perhaps, as civil as they might be about co-parenting, she would prefer him not to be sitting about the house for hours at a time waiting for the baby to wake up and be held for five minutes in between feeding and nappy changes.

[rollo]

The baby was born five weeks ago. The news broke two days ago. Hugh Grant arrived on her doorstep. Call me cynical ...

[Kittylady]

It may well be cynical and it may well be the truth, but as the press haven't been camping on the doorstep before the baby was born we have no way of knowing when and how often he's visited before.

I'm willing to wait and see what kind of father he shapes up to be before I decide one way or the other.

[witchcurlgirl]

There is a little bit of a difference though. They are not married or even in a relationship anymore. She has the legal rights to make all decisions as to whether she wanted to give birth or abort. With that right comes responsibility to provide 100% support financially and emotionally. It is best when the father also wants to be involved but some provide only the court ordered financial support because they never wanted the kid to start. A woman who doesn't want a child has choices.

*smiles as that can of worms is opened..*

I see it that way too. I think it's great if you decide to have a baby (or not, whatever choice you make is yours), but if it wasn't a mutual decision you have to be fully prepared to accept that while the man may be the father he will never be the dad.

[ManxMouse]

I see it that way too. I think it's great if you decide to have a baby (or not, whatever choice you make is yours), but if it wasn't a mutual decision you have to be fully prepared to accept that while the man may be the father he will never be the dad.

but the guy already decided not to wrap it up (assuming that was the case and barring a rare-but-often-claimed birth control failure), and what if the mom wants a kid as does the dad, but wants to be a half-mom (financial support and occasional visits) just like the dad can choose to be a half-dad?

[witchcurlgirl]

I see it as the flipside of when the dad wants to have the baby, and mom wants to abort. Some decisions aren't really yours in the end.

As for the half mom half dad thing, if they can work it out between them, good for them.

[sluce]

There are many men raising kids they had not expected because the mom has chosen to be a half mom.

[ManxMouse]

There are many men raising kids they had not expected because the mom has chosen to be a half mom.

proportionally to men though?

[sluce]

The numbers are growing. Still, the women who choose to have the babies, even when the man doesn't want the child, should not expect him to be anything more than a sperm donor.

[Mel1973]

If being cunty is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Don't worry, you cunty thing - you're in no danger!

That's beautiful. A true life philosophy.

I think we've found the slogan for our next t-shirts...

Me three. I wish he'd been more interested in the Two and a Half Men role. I'd much rather watch him than douchey Kutcher.

vouch!

I am not giving Hugh a pass at all. The child is just 5 weeks old. We have no idea what visitation there has been to date. We only know that on this ONE day he visited for 45 minutes.




There is a little bit of a difference though. They are not married or even in a relationship anymore. She has the legal rights to make all decisions as to whether she wanted to give birth or abort. With that right comes responsibility to provide 100% support financially and emotionally. It is best when the father also wants to be involved but some provide only the court ordered financial support because they never wanted the kid to start. A woman who doesn't want a child has choices.

*smiles as that can of worms is opened..*

I agree with you ... not 'caue you're my bitch neither!

The baby was born five weeks ago. The news broke two days ago. Hugh Grant arrived on her doorstep. Call me cynical ...

CYNICAL!

The numbers are growing. Still, the women who choose to have the babies, even when the man doesn't want the child, should not expect him to be anything more than a sperm donor.

Yes, the numbers are growing. We act like men raising their own children without the mother is unheard of. It ain't. One of my brothers raises two children with basically zero help from the mother - she doesn't even count as half a mother most of the time. Another brother has had his kid and taken care of him for months at a time with no help from that mother. Shit happens. Whether it results from bad choices in the other parent or just changes that can happen in any marriage, more and more men are raising kids. its a fact.

[dowcat]

Hugh Grant's Baby Daughter Named Jessica

Nov 4, 2011 by LISA ESTALL



Hugh Grant was spotted arriving back in Berlin, Germany on Thursday (November 3), after visiting his newborn daughter in London the night before.
It's reported that the actor and Tinglan Hong have named the baby Jessica. The 51-year-old actor became a father last month when the Chinese actress gave birth to the baby on September 26.
Celebrity Baby Scoop | News, Photos and Style Trends of Celebrity Babies

[rollo]

An intriguing portrait of the woman who's had Hugh Grant's baby: Ting Ting has photos of her and little baby Bamboo... but Hugh isn't in any of them



By Jo Mcfarlane

Last updated at 11:47 AM on 6th November 2011

Racy: One of the shots Ting Ting sent to Robert from a 'vanity' modelling assignment in China

When Tinglan Hong arrived at her former boyfriend Robert Hodge’s home at the end of October, the first thing he noticed was that her normally petite frame appeared to have gained weight.
It had been several months since they had last met but now Tinglan, 31, was visiting Robert to discuss changing her silver Mercedes CLK car – a two-door coupe – for a bigger vehicle.
Initially, it seemed an odd request. But suddenly Robert understood. ‘I said to her, “You’ve done it, haven’t you? You’ve had the baby”.’
Tinglan, known to all as Ting Ting, then confirmed what Robert had suspected for several months – that she had given birth to a child fathered by actor Hugh Grant.
The news last week that famously dedicated bachelor Grant, 51, had become a father for the first time came with a backhanded dismissal when his publicists described his time with Ting Ting as ‘a fleeting affair’.
For Robert, 55, a buyer for a specialist car company who spent 18 months dating Ting Ting before she met Grant, it brought mixed emotions.
It brought to mind the day in April 2010 when Ting Ting had told him, with barely concealed excitement, that she had begun playing golf with Grant after meeting him in an upmarket wine bar in Chelsea.
Far from their contact being ‘fleeting’, Robert says that over the months that followed, Ting Ting confessed that she and Hugh had regularly been spending time together.
Although she denied they were romantically involved, Robert suspected there was far more to their relationship.
But as Ting Ting showed him pictures of their dark-haired daughter, he could be in no doubt. He listened as Ting Ting proudly told him that her little girl had been nicknamed Bamboo but that her Chinese name translated as ‘Happy Accident’.
It was perhaps more happy for Ting Ting than for Grant.
Although reportedly ‘delighted’ at becoming a father, the Notting Hill actor is said to have been absent during the child’s birth and spent just half an hour with his daughter before heading to Scotland to play golf.
Last week, he was pictured with a German burlesque dancer, said to be the latest object of his affections.
Robert, a divorced father-of-four from Wandsworth, South London, claims to have no hard feelings towards Grant. But the star’s behaviour towards his former girlfriend, for whom he still cares deeply, has clearly irked him.
Robert says: ‘I don’t think he has been as considerate as he could have been, no. He has brought all this attention on her but doesn’t want to take responsibility for any of it.
‘He has been able to turn up at her house in his Ferrari, bringing the paparazzi straight to her door, and then leave the country again.
‘Meanwhile, it’s Ting Ting who has been left to deal with all of this. Now he’s apparently with this burlesque dancer.


Together: Ting Ting and Hugh on a night out in London in January

‘It’s all very well that his publicist has described his time with Ting Ting as a fleeting romance but it wasn’t fleeting.
‘At one time, he told people she was a big part of his life – it’s not very fair that he has dismissed that. Even if he isn’t with her, he has had a hand in creating this situation.’
So far, little is known about the mother of Grant’s child other than that she was brought up in the town of Lishni in Zhejiang Province, Eastern China. But Robert, who has been divorced for 11 years, is now able to offer an intriguing insight.
He first met Ting Ting in 2006 at the Dog and Fox pub in the centre of exclusive Wimbledon village in South-West London. Attracted by her vivacious and bubbly personality, Robert asked her to join his group and the pair became friends.
Ting Ting had just graduated from a hotel management degree at the University of Surrey in Guildford after arriving in the UK several years previously. She told Robert she was running an internet-based import and export business from her tiny flat in New Malden, Surrey.
It took two years for their friendship to deepen into a romantic relationship.
Robert recalls: ‘It got to the stage we both wanted to be together. She was never moody, always a really nice person to be around. She doesn’t drink alcohol, but is always the life and soul of any gathering. She has huge character and likes spontaneity, to go with the flow.
‘If you met her she’d be friendly and witty and would put people at ease. She picks up on a thread of conversation and will drop in a funny one-liner.
‘She’s a little bit crazy and quite often does something weird – a funny facial expression or little mannerism.
So far, little is known about the mother of Grant’s child other than that she was brought up in the town of Lishni in Zhejiang Province, Eastern China. But Robert, who has been divorced for 11 years, is now able to offer an intriguing insight.

‘It was her innocence that made her a bit cheeky. We laughed a lot together.’
A fan of the latest fashions, Ting Ting dressed in designer labels, favouring £500 Louboutin heels and Gucci handbags. Robert says it was not clear how she could afford such luxuries, but believes her family in China sent her a monthly allowance.
Although she rarely talked about her family, she appeared to have a very close relationship with them and chatted to her mother regularly on the phone. Robert’s impression was that they were moderately well-off – describing them as ‘not wealthy, but not rice farmers’.
The couple spent about five nights a week together enjoying London’s nightlife, going out to restaurants and bars and to adult puppet show Avenue Q.
One night in late 2008, Ting Ting went out with friends to Brinkley’s, a wine bar in Chelsea popular with well-heeled local celebrities including Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh Grant, cricketer Kevin Pietersen and Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard.
‘The next day she showed me this photograph on her phone with Hugh Grant.
‘We laughed about it and she’d bring it out to show people but I didn’t think any more about it.
‘Generally, she wasn’t really interested in celebrity, she didn’t buy those magazines.’
Quieter evenings were spent in Robert’s flat with DVDs of Bond movies or the Bourne trilogy and Ting Ting was a fabulous cook.

Close: Robert Hodge and Tinglan Hong at a friend's birthday party in London

‘She would often spend two hours cooking really good, traditional Chinese food. Things you’d dip; noodles, meat and fish. We’d eat it together with chopsticks.

‘She enjoyed looking after me, playing the housewife.’

Robert introduced her to his friends and family. His four children, aged between 18 and 32, took to her immediately.

One Sunday she met his elderly parents for lunch at their home in Fetcham, Surrey.
‘She helped Mum in the kitchen, bringing plates and food through and helping clear up. She got on with everyone. She engaged in conversation and didn’t just sit quietly in the corner. My parents thought she was great. She treated them with enormous amounts of respect and was well-mannered.

‘It was important to me that they liked her, and it helped me picture a future together.’

They went to the Belgian Grand Prix together in September 2008 and, after spending Christmas with Robert’s mother and eldest daughter Candice, travelled to Chamonix in the French Alps for a skiing holiday over New Year.

They stayed in a chalet with five friends and Ting Ting, who had never skied before, had three mornings of lessons before also trying out a snowboard.

Robert says: ‘She would fall over and just giggle at herself.

‘One night, while we were in a bar in the resort, she realised she was the only Chinese person. So she stood up on the bar itself and started waving her arms around and shouting, in a mock Chinese accent: “Hawo everybody! I am Ting Ting from China!”
‘Everyone loved it and started applauding and shouting back. She’s certainly not shy about coming forward.’

Their relationship became more serious and Robert says Ting Ting talked about wanting to settle down. But Robert was not keen to move too fast after his marriage breakdown and says Ting Ting accepted that.

‘She wanted a stable life with someone. But we didn’t talk about moving in together. I think she respected my situation, but she wanted children. We never spoke about it seriously, but it was clear.’

Oddly, Ting Ting never invited Robert into her flat, a rented, ground-floor bedsit on a busy road. It did not strike Robert as suspicious and he says he never asked to go inside.

But there was undoubtedly an element of secrecy in their relationship. Robert knew little of her family, and admits he has no idea what goods she was involved in importing. There is no record of her business at Companies House and Robert does not know what her visa status is.

After graduating in 2006, Ting Ting was entitled to a two-year post-study work visa, which would have expired in 2008. Robert dismisses these things and says, again, that he simply did not ask the questions.

Ting Ting returned to China for a family visit in late 2009 and stayed for two months. During the trip, she emailed Robert some racy modelling photographs she had taken at a studio as part of a ‘vanity shoot’ – popular among young Chinese women.

Happier times: Robert and Ting Ting skiing in Chamonix in 2009

Robert says: ‘It didn’t really fit in with her character. Yes, she’s gregarious but these were saucy.’
Once she returned, in early 2010, things had changed.

‘I’d try to make arrangements and she’d say, “I can’t make it tonight.” That was really strange. Something was wrong.’

After several weeks Ting Ting broke off the relationship, claiming she needed time to herself.
‘I had very strong feelings for her but I had to respect what she wanted.’
Robert had no contact with Ting Ting until, one day, he bumped into one of her friends, a Taiwanese girl named Amy.

He says: ‘I asked her how Ting Ting was doing. She laughed, and said she had been hanging around with Hugh Grant.

UNIVERSITY ROMANCE WITH A WORLD CUP FOOTBALL STAR


Hugh Grant is not the first celebrity Tinglan Hong has dated, The Mail on Sunday has learned. One of her first loves was a foreign football star ten years older than her, whom she met when she was still a university student in China.

Ting Ting had a romance with Colombian World Cup hero Adolfo Valencia when she was studying at Zhejiang University in the eastern city of Hangzhou and he was playing for the local team.

Friends say she fell head over heels in love with the footballer – but the romance also appears to have been short-lived.
Valencia, who in his glory days played in the 1994 and 1998 World Cup Finals and was once top scorer in a season with German giants Bayern Munich, had two stints with the Zhejiang Lucheng team in Hangzhou between 2002 and 2004. Then aged 34, he was one of the first big-money international players to sign for a Chinese team.

Fellow students interviewed by local newspaper journalist Chen Yuhao recalled how Ting Ting was seen out with Valencia after meeting him at a nightclub. Chen, said: ‘Tinglan liked to meet foreign men. She met Valencia at a nightclub and was besotted with him. They went out together for a while. She was more in love with him than he was with her and it didn’t last.’

Ting Ting studied in Hangzhou for four years from 1999, before moving to Britain in 2003.
Her mother, Liu Minchun, was manager of a large factory producing fountain pens and stationery and later general manager of the city’s Lishui International Hotel.
She was also a delegate to China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress.


‘I was surprised. But I assumed she meant Ting Ting had seen him in Brinkley’s again.’

Robert got the chance to ask her directly when she agreed to meet him in April 2010 at the Thai Square bar on the banks of the Thames at Putney.
‘I asked her how things were going and she said that she had started playing golf at the Wisley Club.

That was strange. She’d never been into golf before.’ Robert knew that the Wisley Club, a private members golf club in Surrey, was hugely exclusive, with a reputed joining fee of £40,000 and an annual £4,000 membership charge.

‘I asked her who she knew who had membership. She kept saying, “Oh, just a friend.”
‘Eventually she told me it was Hugh Grant. She had been having lessons and would walk around the course with Hugh and watch him play.

‘I asked her how on earth she knew him and she said – as I had suspected – they’d met in Brinkley’s again, a few weeks earlier. She didn’t give any indication they were romantically involved.’
Robert and Ting Ting spoke on the phone occasionally and she told him she was spending most weekends with Hugh playing golf, but always denied a relationship.
During one telephone call in July 2010, Robert asked if she wanted to meet the following day.
‘She said: “Actually, I’m going round to Hugh’s to watch the World Cup Final.” There was no doubt who she meant. I was pretty surprised. I left it at that.’

The pair were not in regular contact again until April 2011 when Robert took a call from an excited friend who told him there were photographs in the newspapers of Ting Ting with Hugh, amid speculation that she was pregnant.

‘I looked up the pictures online and laughed. Of course it was Ting Ting. It was obvious to me that they were in a relationship.
‘I called her up and asked her if she was pregnant.

‘She just laughed and said, "No, it’s just the papers making up stories." Again, she didn’t admit they were a couple.

‘We arranged to meet in the bar of the May Fair Hotel soon afterwards. I was curious – I wanted to find out if she really was pregnant.





Glamorous exes: Liz Hurley, who has been named as a potential godmother, and right, Jemima Khan both dated the 51-year-old actor



‘She had definitely put on some weight, but she denied it. But when I asked if she was romantically involved with Hugh, she admitted it for the first time.
‘She didn’t say they were a couple, I think she said they were seeing each other.’
In the middle of May, Ting Ting invited Robert to dinner.

‘The really strange thing was that she asked me to come to Brinkley’s. We sat down at a table; her facing the door.
‘She kept saying, “Oh, I’ve put so much weight on.” I teased her about being pregnant but she continued to deny it.

‘During our second course, Hugh walked in. She said, “Oh. It’s Hugh.”
‘I said, “Well, this is a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?"
‘He came straight over but they didn’t embrace or even look like close friends. She introduced us and said, “Hugh, this is Robert.”

‘She stood up and they chatted, very briefly, although I can’t remember what they said.
‘He then turned and said something extremely strange to me. He nodded at my plate and said, “What have you got there?”

‘I said, “Oh, Dover sole.” He made a face. He said: “Fish. Very strange. A bit like smoking."
‘It was so odd I didn’t know what to say. I joked, “It’s not as dangerous is it?” He shrugged and said, “I suppose not.” Then he walked off.

It was the strangest thing to say. Again, I said, "That was a bit embarrassing."'

In retrospect, Robert wonders if he was set up in a bid to make Hugh jealous. Ting Ting was by now five months pregnant and judging by their odd greeting it appears things between them had cooled.

What happened next makes it clear there was a rather bizarre game in play.
Robert recalls: ‘Hugh went off to another table to join some friends. One was a very good-looking young woman, with long dark hair, who was probably only 22 or 23. He seemed to flirt with her, putting a hand on her arm.

Life imitating art? Hugh Grant, pictured right in Bridget Jones's diary, regularly plays the same character - a caddish English gentleman who usually had to be dragged to the altar

‘Ting Ting was not happy. She said something like, “Look at that. That’s his latest girlfriend.”
‘It was said jokingly, but now I’m sure she was bitter.’

The next time Robert heard from Ting Ting was last week, on October 27. She rang him and asked if he could help sell her car, and then brought it round that after-noon. Then, she confessed she had given birth to Hugh’s child. Robert says: ‘She said her parents had come over from China to look after the baby. She seemed happy, quite well, not at all tired or harassed. She also showed me some photos on her phone.

‘Bamboo looked sweet, with dark hair. There were none of her with Hugh.
‘I was happy for her. There were some mixed feelings, obviously, as I still care about her. Then she said, “Pity we can’t get back together.”

‘I was surprised. I said, “What about Hugh?”

‘She said he was “very strange”. She didn’t expand on that.
‘She went on to say he was a good father. She said: “Whenever he’s in the country, he comes to see Bamboo.”
‘I didn’t think that sounded like a good father. She also told me he wouldn’t put his name on the birth certificate until March.

‘She didn’t say why, although I assume it’s to avoid anyone knowing he’s the father.
‘She hasn’t mentioned paternity tests, so I don’t know if it’s something Hugh wanted.’

Ting Ting also said Liz Hurley had been to see Bamboo and that she was to be the child’s godmother.

Robert says Ting Ting will cope, though she might be feeling let down.
‘I think she’ll be quite sad at the moment. She was looking for stability and children and in a way she’s got it. But it doesn’t look like she has someone standing by her.

‘She’ll brush it off and laugh about it. That’s what’s in her nature.
‘And she’ll be a brilliant mum. She’s very caring. The pictures of her with her Louboutin shoes and Gucci bags don’t do her justice.

‘Underneath it all she’s a very traditional Chinese girl. She’s homely – not a princess.’






Hugh Grant baby: An intriguing portrait of Tinglan Hong | Mail Online

[aabbcc]

I think she’ll be quite sad at the moment. She was looking for stability and children and in a way she’s got it. But it doesn’t look like she has someone standing by her.

With Hugh Grant? Oh, please. But good job on grabbing the spotlight for yourself for a few minutes.