HONG KONG - Six months after marrying tycoon Julian Hui, Michelle Reis appears to have antagonised her mother-in-law with her refusal to have children, Hong Kong media reports.

Michelle Reis' resistance to having children was already a sore point with her in-laws who chided her for not fulfilling her wifely duties. Last month, Michelle Reis announced that she was looking for a surrogate mother to bear her children, further aggravating her mother-in-law.

On the eve of Mothers' day (May 9), the couple went back to the Hui family mansion at Deep Water Bay., Julian Hui reportedly wanted to use the Mother's day celebration as a pretext for Michelle to make reparations.

Unfortunately, the fiery Reis was not willing to back down. Photos from Hong Kong paparazzi captured the unhappy faces of mother and daughter-in-law, who remained sternly reserved throughout the dinner.

A reporter from One Weekly who observed the dinner from outside their house said that Michelle Reis and her mother-in-law both wore red but kept at arm's length throughout the dinner.

Michelle Reis was black-faced most of the time and avoided her mother-in-law despite her husband's attempts to mediate.

At 10pm, when the dinner ended, the normally intimate couple were visibly strained.

Practically every photograph of the couple so far showed their hands entwined, and media once dubbed them the "Siamese twins". But this time, they left the house, hands kept to themselves, and the normally professional Reis could not even muster a smile when she saw the reporters outside.