Regina Tong was born at Tsan Yuk Hospital, the teaching hospital of University of Hong Kong in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong, on 5 February 1957 to a merchant Tong Chi-ming and mother Kwok Chor-gar with ancestral roots in Beihai, Guangxi.

As the spouse of the Chief Executive, Regina Leung took positions of patron and president of many non-governmental organisations, following former Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's wife, Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei, and Tung Chee-hwa's wife, Betty Tung Chiu Hung-ping.

She was criticised after she used the Chief Executive Office to meet with the members of the Friends of Earth and Green Power for "using government resources to handle her private matters."

[4] In 2014 when her 22-year-old daughter Leung Chai-yan published a Facebook post that depicted a slashed wrist captioned "Will I bleed to death?

She went on and slammed Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political science lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for his article in Ming Pao which criticised the Chief Executive who posted a family picture in Hyde Park after his daughter's Facebook posting with smiles and harmonious tone, in which his daughter later said it was her father idea to take the picture and she thought it was a poor PR stunt.

Choy said Leung Chun-ying was exploiting his daughter and quoted the Chinese saying, "Even a vicious tiger will not eat its cubs".

"My mother literally just pushed me up against a wall slapped me and called me a [stupid ... whore ...] kicked me – I fell, hit my spine against corner of study table.

[6] A group of 10 college students organised a demonstration in support of Chai-yan and demanding government departments to take action against domestic violence.

Her clothing choices during first official trip in Beijing with husband Leung Chun-ying was criticised by fashion expert William Tang Tat-chi.

[7] The bright red evening dress with long sleeves caught the public's imagination, and spawned numerous internet memes.