Regina Ip has very close relations with her only daughter Cynthia, who is pursuing university education in the USA, but they encountered difficult times during the early years.

After leaving the government, Ip took Cynthia, who was only 14 at that time, to study abroad and she also took the opportunity to take on a master's degree program at Stanford University in August 2003.

Three years later, she returned to Hong Kong to set up a policy think-tank and get more deeply involved in political affairs. She took on two direct election campaigns, losing the 2007 by-election before winning a seat in 2008.

The growth and development of her daughter were the biggest reason for her quitting the government job and starting a new lease of life outside Hong Kong. After the death of her husband in November 1997 due to liver cancer complications, she became a single parent, struggling between being a busy government official and a caring mother.

"It was very tough being a single parent," she admitted. "As a government official, I had very little time to stay with her. Becoming a teenager, she didn't do very well in her school work and there was also a communication problem between us. To improve our relations, it was necessary for me to take a break from my career and take her to the US. It was during the three years there that our relations began to get better," she recounted.

(HK Edition 10/09/2009 page4)