While some of us can relate to being cheated on, having your heartbreak spread all over the internet is so much more devastating. We tend to live vicariously through the romantic relationships of celebrities because of the fame and grandeur, but many of our fave couples have not stood the test of time due to infidelity either.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve definitely heard about some of the entertainment industry’s biggest breakups over the years. Just to recap, here are some of the biggest celeb cheating scandals in Asia and Hollywood that made us rethink what loving and healthy relationships actually look like.
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After a video of Andy Hui and Jacqueline Wong being caught in an intimate pose in the backseat of a taxi was released to the public back in 2019, it rocked Hong Kong’s entertainment world. Andy was, and still is married to Cantopop queen Sammi Cheng when he cheated, and Jacqueline was also in a relationship with popular TVB actor Kenneth Ma at the time.
Although Andy’s and Jacqueline’s affair only lasted a few months, Jacqueline became labeled as ‘Asia’s most famous mistress’, and her career was put in “cold storage” by TVB until her contract expired. Andy went on to hold a public press conference to apologise to his wife Sammi, and she graciously forgave him by staying with him until today.
And even though Jacqueline disappeared from the public eye for a few years, she’s since made a comeback by launching her music career earlier this year. She’s also bagged a new man, 48-year-old Lai Man Wang, who’s a drummer for Cantopop band RubberBand, and they celebrated their beautiful wedding just a month ago with their furkids in attendance.
Popular Taiwanese entertainer Wang Leehom shocked everyone after explicit details of his behaviour was exposed by his ex-wife Li Jinglei shortly after their divorce was confirmed in 2021. There already was quite a bit of speculation going around, and the juicy details that came from Li solidified public opinion.
Leehom was accused by Li that he had several affairs, and these extra-marital relationships involved not just other women but men too. She also revealed that Leehom had a habit of soliciting sex workers while they were married.
Leehom however, took to his social media platform to outrightly deny all accusations against him by claiming, “I can say with absolute certainty that I was never unfaithful in our marriage.”
The whole ordeal turned into a he-said-she-said situation, and the ex-couple became embroiled in a legal dispute over their divorce and custody of their children. Yikes.
When Boys Over Flowers actress Goo Hye Sun and model/actor Ahn Jae-hyun got together, it looked like a match made in K-drama heaven. Unfortunately, the illusive bubble popped after Hye Sun started accusing Jae-hyun of cheating on her after finalising their divorce in July 2020.
The fights were publicised and messy. Hye Sun revealed that Jae-hyun would call up other women to hit on them whenever he was drunk, and she suspected him of being unfaithful with another actress. She also exposed some of Jae-hyun’s comments on her body, claiming that he wanted to divorce her because “her nipples weren’t sexy”. OMG?
Jae-hyun went on to deny everything, but Hye Sun’s claims were backed up by a leaked document confirming Jae-hyun’s extramarital activities. The document claimed that one of Hye Sun’s actress friends saw Jae-hyun cheating on her with a co-star from his 2018 K-drama, The Beauty Inside. However, the document was never brought up in court so it remains a mystery until today.
A year after Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun and actress Lee Min-jung got married, their relationship got hit with some shocking controversy. In 2014, Byung-hun started getting blackmailed for KRW5 billion (~S$5.149 million) by Dahee from K-pop girl group GLAM and model Lee Ji-yeon. Both Dahee and Ji-yeon claimed to have compromising video footage of the actor being sexually inappropriate with them.
People were naturally taken aback with the allegations, and Byung-hun decided to press charges against Dahee and Ji-yeon for extortion. He went on to publicly apologise to his wife after vehemently denying all allegations and rumours.
And unfortunately for Dahee and Ji-yeon, both of them were convicted in court and served a prison sentence for just over a year. Ji-yeon did reveal that she only resorted to blackmail after Byung-hun broke off their affair, and Dahee got involved because she needed funds to pay off her debt with Big Hit Entertainment.
Byung-hun, however, denied the affair with Ji-yeon and he remains married to Min-jung to this day.
Probably one of Singapore’s most famous cheating scandals, filmmaker and comedian Jack Neo was publicly outed in 2010 by freelance model Wendy Chong who claimed he was having an affair with her for two years. Considering Wendy was only 22 years old at the time and Jack was 50, the abuse of power dynamics was definitely in question.
Jack faced the music by holding a press conference where he publicly admitted to his affair, and asked his wife, Irene Kng, for forgiveness. Irene openly forgave him and announced that she would stay with him, but the emotional toll was overwhelming and she collapsed at the press conference.
Both Jack and Irene have stayed strong since then and they’ve been married for over three decades this year.
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It’s no secret that Jackie Chan had an affair with pageant queen Elaine Ng in the late 90’s, which led to her getting pregnant. Elaine gave birth to Etta Ng in 1999 before revealing her relationship with Jackie to the media. Jackie, on the other hand, was and still is married to Joan Lin Feng-jiao after she publicly forgave him. Although that’s great for them, what’s disturbing is the way Jackie flat out refused to acknowledge Etta as his daughter.
The sad fact about this affair is how badly it affected an innocent child, and Etta later on became estranged with her mother Elaine too, due to the latter’s homophobia. Etta has since been vocal about her parents’ bigotry towards the LGBTQIA community and cut them both off.
Last we heard about Etta, she was sighted queuing up for free food for the needy in Toronto, Canada where she lives with her wife, Andi Autumn. Our hearts go out to Etta and we hope things turn around for her because she sure deserves better.
Although never publicly confirmed or denied, the famous elevator scene in 2014 involving Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and her sister Solange told us something was not right between the power couple. It was only when Beyoncé released her monumental album Lemonade a year later, did people finally put two and two together.
The question still asked by many, is how could anyone even think of cheating on the Beyoncé? The revelation of a hidden affair shook us up, and we asked ourselves, “If Beyoncé can get cheated on, is there any hope for the rest of womankind?”
Jay-Z finally admitted to his infidelity in an interview with New York Times’ T Magazine in 2017, collectively gagging the world. While many of us will agree that Beyoncé deserves better, splitting up a billion dollar empire is clearly not on her list for global domination. All we can say is, you do you Queen.
Being one of Hollywood’s most famous cheating scandals, the world reeled in shock when America’s sweetheart, Jennifer Anniston, got dumped by her global heartthrob husband, Brad Pitt. Their union felt like a fairytale, and everyone was convinced they would go on to start a family and live happily ever after.
But after working with Angelina Jolie on Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Brad left Jennifer rather abruptly and went to start a family with Angelina instead. Fast forward to 2023, Brad and Angelina are no longer together, and we’re hearing some shocking accounts from their eldest child Maddox about Brad’s abusive behavior. Apparently he was so out of control behind closed doors, that none of his children want anything to do with him anymore.
However, Brad’s “golden boy” reputation has hardly taken a hit and he maintains being one the highest paid actors in Hollywood.
Victoria Secret model Behati Prinsloo met Adam Levine when she was picked to be in a Maroon 5 music video, and the pair fell for each other instantly. After a whirlwind romance, Adam and Behati separated for a couple of months before reconciling again in 2013.
They both then got married in 2014, and they went on to have three children together. Adam confessed on the Ellen show in 2018 that he wanted to have at least five children with Behati, to match with the name of his band. How original.
In September 2022, when Behati was pregnant with their third child, Instagram model Sumner Stroh publicly announced that she and Adam were having an affair for a year. It caused quite an uproar on social media, especially when Sumner released alleged screenshots of private messages between her and Adam. As many of us can remember, Twitter and TikTok had a field day tearing Adam to shreds over the contents of those DMs.
Adam addressed Sumner’s allegations against him in a public statement saying, “I used poor judgment in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner. I did not have an affair, nevertheless, I crossed the line during a regrettable period of my life.”
Behati had their baby in January 2023, and the couple have decided to stay together for the sake of their young children. Sources claim that Behati obviously isn’t happy with Adam after the embarrassment he put her through, but she’s staying because she refuses to “entertain drama.” We hope Adam realises how lucky is, because I could never!
The Twilight Saga turned Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson into teen royalty, and when they became a real life couple, fans lost their minds in excitement. None of us could get enough of their shy, awkward but intense chemistry when seen on the red carpet together.
It would be safe to say that Rob wasn’t the only one completely blindsided when Kristen was caught canoodling with her Snow White & The Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders in 2012.
It felt like we were all facing severe heartbreak when our fave vampire couple decided to call it quits after Kristen’s affair.
And what made it worse was Kristen was only 22 at the time and Rupert was 41. He was also married to model Liberty Ross and they both had two children together. The affair ended both Kristen’s and Rupert’s relationships, and the director went on to describe the ordeal as a “momentary lapse” in judgement.
Imagine being cheated on repeatedly by your baby daddy, including just days before giving birth. That’s what happened to Khloe Kardashian, who really seemed to have gotten the short stick in relationships.
Before moving on to Tristan Thompson, she was married to Lamar Odom who turned out to have a sex addiction that resulted in him cheating on her in all kinds of ways. Thinking she found a better partner in Tristan, Khloé was left traumatised after multiple sightings of Tristan being unfaithful to her were plastered all over America’s entertainment sites like TMZ.
Tristan was even brazen enough to be caught making out with Kylie Jenner’s BFF, Jordyn Woods at a Hollywood party. Our hearts went out to Khloé when she spoke about trying to heal on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
She said, “As much as these people hurt us, I also know that if this can make them better and if I can be that person then…like, I know I’m strong enough to do that. It just sucks it has to be so public. No one understands how I’m not just a TV show. Like, this is my life and it breaks my soul and it’s happened so many times.”
Shakira met former Spanish professional footballer Gerard Piqué on the set of her Waka Waka music video, the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Piqué was said to be immediately smitten with her and started pursuing her right away. Well, it’s Shakira after all so we totally get it.
Unfortunately, Piqué’s interest in one of the most attractive and talented women on the planet started waning and last year, he was caught cheating with a much younger woman, Clara Chia Marti. Even worse, Shakira found out about Piqué’s infidelity because he would bring his mistress to their home. Shakira started noticing that someone was eating up all her gourmet jam which confused her, because neither Piqué nor both their children liked jam.
This led to some internal investigation and next thing we knew, the couple were calling it quits after a decade of being together. Shakira took a note out of Beyoncé’s book and poured all her heartache into a song titled BZRP Music Session #53, properly shading Piqué’s mistress, Clara.
Piqué responded by openly sharing about his relationship with Clara on Instagram earlier this year. The audacity.
Getting cheated on is one of the most painful experiences anyone can go through, but having it happen in front of the whole world is definitely worse. One thing we all can collectively learn from these stories is that finding love is wonderful, but it isn’t the be-all-end-all we think it is.
Because although love is important, shared moral values like integrity, respect, and loyalty speak louder in the long run, especially when looking for long-term commitment.
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