You may know Lina Ng as a strict mother in local drama Lion Mums – but off-screen, she’s more of a “tiger mum” according to her kids.
The local actress and her eldest son Jeriel Lam, who turns 23 this year, appeared as guests on an episode of YouTube talk show DNA uploaded on April 30, sharing in detail to actress-host Rebecca Lim about their relationship for the first time.
Lina, who turns 52 on May 6, and her husband, former national bowler Mike Lam, also have sons Joel, 20, and Samuel, 15.
In the episode, Lina and Jeriel reflected on her strict parenting over the years and how it shaped growing up at home.
Jeriel said he and his brothers thrived under Lina’s watchful gaze.
“She’s very strict with us, but we love it,” admitted Jeriel. When questioned by a confused Rebecca, he explained: “I think a lot of people have parents who are busy, so to have a mother who is so targeted in looking after us regardless whether she’s a ‘tiger’ or not, it makes us feel lots of love and affection.”
For instance, one of Lina’s ways of enforcing discipline in her sons included taking away their handphones after coming home from school on weekdays, which Jeriel felt ended up benefitting him. As a water polo player at age 14, with no phone on hand and “nothing to do”, he developed a habit of taking afternoon naps. As such, he remarked feeling well-rested and was able to perform during training sessions.
Despite the raving reviews of her parenting, Lina recalled one regretful instance with Joel.
“I would say I regret the way I did it, but not the intentions of my actions,” she explained. “We have a very strong value in the family which is to not tell any lies, including white lies… My second son told a few lies here and there and I gave him many chances to repent, and he’d say sorry and I’d let it go.”
However, things came to a head when later, he lied about an incident and shifted blame away from himself to an innocent party instead.
She continued: “To me, it was doubly serious. He was learning to lie and putting the blame on someone who was innocent. So, I decided to cane him and [up until then], I hadn’t done physical punishment – at most, I would only do one [smack] on the hand.
“And because I didn’t want to embarrass Joel, I brought him to the room, closed the door – and I just whacked him. I was just thinking about making sure that it was memorable for him… Then I came out and told my husband to go in and do whatever he needed to, like giving him medication.”
Confessing that she still cries over the memory as it is hurtful for her to resort to physically punishing her children, Lina acknowledged that in the moment, she had no other ways to discipline Joel and is confident that the pain she inflicted has scared him off from making the same mistakes.
The incident turned out to have a big impact on Jeriel as well, who heard his brother’s screams, even helping to heal his subsequent wounds. “I remember this very clearly and this made me realise how important these values were to my family,” he reflected.
No dating before 18
With Jeriel now a young adult, Rebecca raised the topic of dating in the Lam household, prompting him to share a dispute he initially had with Lina.
“When I first realised I liked someone, I didn’t dare to tell her because we had a rule that I wasn’t allowed to date before 18,” he said. “When I was 15, my then-crush wrote me a very sweet letter for my birthday. I hid it somewhere under my cupboard and when my mum was doing spring-cleaning, she said that my table was very messy.”
Things led to another with Lina stumbling upon the letter and reading it, which angered Jeriel as he felt she had invaded his privacy. Surprisingly, she stated that she had not been angry and was merely curious about his ongoing romance.
“Eventually, it became quite nice because then she knew about my relationship. I could ask her a lot of things that I wouldn’t have known,” admitted Jeriel. However, Lina did not forget their set rule about dating, and they struck a deal: with a measurable metric, Jeriel would prove that his relationship was not going to affect his academics.
In the end, Jeriel held up his end of the deal and “studied the hardest” he ever had, which now sees him celebrating six years attached to the same girl whom Lina approves of.
But the math isn’t mathing – which had Rebecca asking: “At what age did you guys start dating? Was it before 18?”
Lina quipped: “It was before 18. It was when he turned 17 and that was the birthday present that we gave to him. The best one.”
Lina took to Instagram today to share an early birthday surprise she had received from her family. Attaching a video of herself receiving an Apple product for a present, she wrote: “I was this close to staying in and skipping dinner… tired, zero effort outfit, you know the vibe.
“But the boys and hubby insisted that family time is precious (and honestly, they’re right). So I dragged myself out… and walked straight into the sweetest surprise!”
Actress-turned-mum
Lina entered showbiz in 1993 after finishing as first runner-up in Star Search and joined Mediacorp and later SPH MediaWorks. She left the former in 2004 after both companies merged the previous year. While it is widely reported that her departure was driven by her decision to be a stay-at-home mother, she revealed otherwise.
Lina told Rebecca candidly: “The truth is, it wasn’t planned. It was sudden… I wasn’t given the choice to continue my trade. I was given the option to work in the marketing department, not in front of the camera. I didn’t think I would enjoy it because that’s not what I like to do, so I didn’t take up the offer.”
At the time, Jeriel was just one year old, and her husband suggested that she stay home to take care of him. She later returned to showbiz with projects like Lion Mums season two and three (2017 and 2018), Last Madame (2019) and Your World in Mine (2022), as well as earlier cameo roles.
Being years out of the spotlight, she found her return to the industry to be “humbling” as many of her co-stars were not familiar with her and she had to come to terms that she was “no longer a somebody”.
Even Jeriel was not privy to his mum’s stardom; he had only chanced upon her history when he grew curious about what she did for a living after realising she had gone out more when he was 11 years old.
“There was one day when I Googled Lina Ng, and I was like, this person is my mum?!” he recounted in amusement.
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