Actress Lina Ng’s son didn’t know she was famous until he Googled her

On the latest episode of 8days’ DNA, former Mediacorp actress Lina Ng teams up with her eldest son, Jeriel Lam, 22, for a candid conversation with host Rebecca Lim. From her tight-knit relationship with her boys to her “tiger mum” approach at home, nothing is off-limits – including reflections on her showbiz journey.

Ng first stepped into the spotlight as the first runner-up of Star Search 1993, later becoming one of the most recognisable actresses of the late ’90s. In 2001, she made the move to SPH MediaWorks, before stepping away from full-time acting following its merger with Mediacorp in 2004.

Opening up about her departure from showbiz, Ng said: “The truth is it wasn’t planned. There was a merger, and I wasn’t given the option to continue my trade. I was given the option to work in the marketing department.”

Knowing it wasn’t a role she would enjoy, Ng chose not to take it on – even if it meant leaving the industry entirely. Around the same time, she had just given birth to Lam, and with her husband’s encouragement, decided to step into a new chapter as a full-time mum, though she admits it was hard to walk away from her career.

She still took on the occasional on-screen role, but counts her “real” comeback as Lion Mums 2 (2017), which also saw her take on her first English-speaking part.

Since Ng had stepped away from acting during his childhood, Lim couldn’t help but ask Lam: “At what age did you realise that your mum used to be a very famous actress?”

With a laugh, Lam admitted: “To be honest, I had no idea she was an actress at all.”

To him, Ng was simply Mum – a stay-at-home parent. While he occasionally noticed strangers approaching her for photos in public, it was something he never quite questioned. He never asked, and Ng never explained, choosing to let him and his younger brothers, Joel and Samuel (now 20 and 15), grow up without the weight of her past fame.

“When she eventually started the role in Lion Mums, when I was about 11, she was going out a bit more. Then I asked her, ‘I know what Pa does for a living, what do you do?’,” said Lam.

That simple question led to quite the discovery.

“There was one day I Googled ‘Lina Ng’ and I was like, ‘Huh? This person is my Ma?’,” he recalled, still sounding amused by the memory.

Curious, he turned to Ng for answers – and she responded by pulling out a photo album filled with her old acting stills. But in true Gen Z fashion, Lam had a harder time explaining the next part.

“She showed me clips of her past work on… I don’t know what you call it, the disc [where you can see the] rainbow reflection,” he said, clearly referring to CD-ROMS. 

It was then he fully understood what his mum did for a living.

Even after discovering just how famous his mum used to be, Lam's opinion of her didn’t change one bit.

“Even if she wasn’t an actress, she was always someone we looked up to because she was an excellent mum. She drove [good] values in us since young,” he said.

Still, there were moments that gave him a glimpse into just how big her world once was. One of them was accompanying Ng to the Star Awards in 2019, where she also clinched a Top 10 Most Popular Artiste award – she last won the award in 1996.

“It was very eye-opening. She had so many friends I never knew existed – people I saw on Instagram, I didn’t know she was mutuals [with them],” Lam recalled.

For Ng, the moment meant far more than just a return to the spotlight.

“It was significant because I always felt that I was not wanted, because of the abrupt decision made that I could not continue my trade. When that award came about, it restored my confidence.”

This story was originally published in 8Days.

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