The Divorce Scandal of Leehom Wang Is Intensifying

At the end of last year, there was a period of time that I was busy following the gossip of a celebrity. Although it was kind of embarrassing to follow the gossip instead of studying English, at least I tried very hard to share this story to my teachers and tried to explain the gossip in English. I hope the local news can also bring entertainment to them.

The divorce scandal of a famous POP singer Leehom Wang has been intensifying in the Chinese speaking world for a few days. The first breaking news was released by his ex-wife, Lee Jinglei who posted a 5,000 words article on her own Weibo and Instagram accounts during the night of Dec 18th. While most of Taiwanese were sleeping or focusing more on the referendum on Dec 18th, the scandal suddenly shifted all public attention to the shocking news.

In Lee’s article, Wang was accused of being promiscuous. She pointed out and implied some real cases that Wang had not only kept sleeping around with different female friends and singers but had also solicited prostitutes before and during their marriage. Even though Lee did not reveal the names of those who had purportedly had a sexual relationship with Wang, some cases were obviously linked to previous news, therefore, it was easily for people to put two and two together. In addition, Lee and Wang had sought advice from almost 5 psychiatrists for marriage counselling. Wang had been diagnosed to have sex addiction and narcissistic tendencies, but he refused to accept this and kept trying to find another psychiatrist to prove that he was fine. And during their marriage, Lee was treated coldly and cruelly by Wang’s snobbish family. When divorced, Wang was tight with money. He tried to limit Lee’s rights and forced her to take unfair terms and conditions based on the prenuptial agreement.

After Lee broke the news on her own social media platform, the public opinions have gone crazy, and people have been trying to figure out more gossip and details.
Those females who were implicated in their marriage breakdown had also leaped to make statements and tried to explain. But in doing so, they did more damage, because Lee responded with proof and slapped them in their faces. Even Wang and his father’s statements failed too. Lee has stolen the show and shown her strong power of words.

Before this scandal, Wang had kept a good reputation in his super star career: handsome, talented, highly- educated and with a prominent family background. Wang has been one of the most famous singers in the Chinese Speaking World since 1995. His parents are living in the US, and he was born and grew up in America. He went back to Taiwan in 1995 when he was 19 and published his first album. Over the next 26 years, he has become a popular idol with millions of fans. In these past 10 years, he has transferred his career focus from Taiwan to China and frequently traveled between the two markets.

As the scandal has been spreading, people suddenly realized that Wang’s image and good reputation were based on fabrication. Wang took the first flight back to Taiwan on the morning of Dec 18th. People are speculating that the reason that Wang escaped back to Taiwan is that soliciting prostitutes in China is illegal, and the law is getting stricter this year. Several famous people have been arrested because of the issue. But in Taiwan, the law about this is more tolerant than in China.

Although Wang had finally apologized on Dec 20th, the social opinions have continued to flurry, their lives are like a soap opera now. People have even extended this event to different related topics, such as how to keep a good relationship, how to protect yourself when getting a divorce and if it is ok to air your dirty laundry on social media.