Francesca Shaw is a Singaporean socialite and a former girlfriend of Nick Young. She is a minor character in the Crazy Rich Asians book series by Kevin Kwan, and was an antagonist in the first book.
Background[]
Francesca is the daughter of Nadine Shaw, one of Eleanor Young's closest friends. She was an heiress to the Shaw Foods fortune before her grandfather, Shaw Foods founder Ronald Shaw, cut off the entire family from his fortune after unexpectedly waking up from his coma after a stroke several years earlier.
Like Amanda "Mandy" Ling, Francesca had a relationship with Nick Young in her youth. Nick recalled that they grew apart after her personality changed. However, Francesca still hoped to eventually rekindle their relationship, and was envious of Nick's relationship with Rachel Chu.
After failing to thwart the relationship between Nick and Rachel, Francesca had an affair with businessman Roderick Liang, who was already married, creating a scandal that forced her to flee Singapore. She later married a Syrian/Iranian Jewish businessman and had a son with him named Joshua.
Crazy Rich Asians[]
Francesca spends most of the book trying to harass Rachel Chu, whom she is jealous of due to Rachel's relationship with Nick Young. It is heavily implied that Francesca was responsible for placing the mutilated fish in Rachel's hotel room, and she also purposefully makes Rachel uncomfortable by sharing a lewd story about a sexual experience that she had with Nick before his relationship with Rachel.