Taiwanese-American singer Wang Leehom (王力宏) yesterday issued a public apology to his ex-wife Lee Jinglei (李靚蕾) over allegations that he had been unfaithful during their marriage, and said he would temporarily withdraw from the entertainment business.
“I will no longer give any explanations or defend myself. I didn’t manage the marriage properly, caused trouble to my family and didn’t maintain the public the image that an idol should have. It was all my fault,” Wang wrote on Facebook.
Lee on Sunday had demanded an apology from Wang and his father, threatening legal action if one was not provided by 3pm that day.
Photo: AP
Lee on Friday posted on Instagram allegations that Wang was a serial adulterer who had solicited prostitutes and subjected Lee to emotional abuse. That led to the loss of a host of endorsement deals for the award-winning singer and damaged his long-cultivated clean-cut image, with Wang’s father defending his son in a letter published on Sunday.
However, the father’s attempt to protect his son resulted in Lee demanding an apology from both and threatening legal action for defamation.
The father’s letter claimed that his son’s biggest regret was in 2013 when Lee revealed that she was pregnant. He said that Lee had initially told the family that she would raise the child on her own, then backtracked and threatened to ruin his son’s career unless he agreed to get married.
The elder Wang described what followed as “seven years of pain,” saying that the last two years had felt like hell to his son.
He said that his son and Lee had been separated for the past two years, and that his son had tried his best to be a dedicated father and partner, but Lee had asked for hundreds of millions of New Taiwan dollars in alimony.
Lee responded to the letter on Instagram, saying the inaccuracy of the content was proof that she had been mistreated.
She said that as her ex-husband had made her believe that they were dating with a view to getting married, the couple had used no form of contraception, which resulted in the pregnancy.
She said Wang’s parents had given her an ultimatum of either getting an abortion or giving birth while unmarried, which resulted in her considering raising the child as a single parent.
Lee said that she had not asked for hundreds of millions in alimony, but had asked to keep the current staff on the couple’s payroll to help her raise the children.
Lee said that her ex-husband had voluntarily been absent from the lives of their children.
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