While most celebs get into the fruit biz later in their careers (see: Terence Cao, Lam King Kong, and Olinda Cho), Taiwanese star Liu Yurou was born into a family that “grows two-thirds of the Mao Shan Wang durians on the Malaysian market”.

Or at least, that’s what the 34-year-old, who got her start in showbiz as a model, claimed during her recent appearance on Taiwanese variety programme WTO Sister Show.

“When I was young, my mother used to tell me that if I don’t succeed in my career or marry well, I could go back to Malaysia and be a ‘durian princess’,” said Yurou, whose father is Malaysian.

Upon hearing this, Taiwanese actress Sasa remarked: “Malaysian durians are the best! You should quickly go home. Why did you leave?”

Yurou then shared that while Malaysians love to buy durians, she is actually “very afraid” of the spiky fruit.

“When I was a kid, my family would bring in several trucks of durians every day,” she explained. “Everyone would then open and eat the durians with their bare hands, making the entire house smell like durians, even the toilet!”

However, instead of joining them, Yurou would “run out the back door” as soon as she saw the trucks coming in, presumably ‘cos she was traumatised by the durian’s famously polarising aroma.

Since Yurou previously refused to tell people that her family basically runs a durian empire, her father once accused her of “not knowing the goods”.

“The parents of my friends here in Taiwan have asked us to send some durians over, but I’m like, that’s crazy! There is a whole pile of income taxes to deal with…” she laughed.

Taiwanese comedian Nono immediately piped up: “You are the crazy one and have no business acumen! I have a friend who makes over NT$4mil (S$194,000) a month just from selling Mao Shan Wang durians.”

Photos: Yvonne Liu/Instagram, Gala Television