Singaporean actor Thomas Ong will be retiring from the showbiz this year.

The 50-year-old's last drama series, "Super Dad", is scheduled to air on Mediacorp Channel 8 on Sep. 2, 2020.

Selling durians online

Ong isn't planning to fully relax, though.

During this period, Ong got to know a durian seller, and the two began to work together to create a variety of durian-infused food, 8 World reported.

He also started to promote his durian business on his Instagram account, with a link to the delivery site available on his profile as well.

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Durian-flavoured mooncakes will also be released for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, according to Ong.

He told the Chinese publication, "My job is to taste the food, as well as be the spokesperson for the products and occasionally help to deliver the products."

When asked about the earnings for his participation, Ong said, "We didn't talk about money lah, we partnered up because I have nothing better to do now, might as well learn and try something new!

He won't just be focusing on durians, either — Ong is currently working with a chef to launch an online food delivery service by mid-September.

They aim to focus on taste and convenience, in addition to their main goal of producing healthy food.

"Nowadays, people want their food to either be convenient or healthy, so we've been developing new recipes to try and make, let's say, delicious pork bone soup without adding in salt and other preservatives."

However, he has no plans on doing live streaming to sell products like other celebrities.

Ong feels that he isn't as eloquent as other celebrities, and also pointed out that one would have to stream three to four times a week, which is an exhausting feat.

He also doesn't plan on selling the same things that other celebrities were promoting.

"Though there are invites from vendors, I want to test the products myself first before trying to sell them," he added. 

His involvement for both businesses, however, is only for the Covid period.

Once the pandemic clears up, Ong intends to see the world on a backpacking trip.

Funding for Cambodian schools not affected

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Ong is also known to continuously fund education programs for children in Cambodia, and currently supports two schools located in the country.

Though Ong's income was affected by the pandemic, he had managed to raise over a year's worth of funds in 2019, which is enough to last till mid-2021.

"[The students] are still attending school under the safety measures instructed by the government, though it's a bit harder on the teachers, who have to take extra care of those children."

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Top image via Thomas Ong