TAIPEI — South Korean musician DJ Koo has come forward to address cheating allegations that he secretly met up with Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu in 2018 while she was still married.
In a post on Thursday night, he shared a series of photos of his trip to Taichung and Taipei that year, none of which featured Hsu, whom he married in March this year.
"Stop fake news," he wrote in the caption.
Hsu, 46, had divorced Chinese businessman Wang Xiaofei, 41, a year ago and swiftly remarried Koo, 53, whose name is Koo Jun-yup, a few months later.
She and Koo had dated some 20 years ago and reconnected after her divorce. They tied the knot while she was in Taiwan and he was in South Korea, without even seeing each other, due to the pandemic.
Earlier this week, it was reported by Taiwan's Mirror Media that Hsu has accused her ex of failing to honour their divorce agreement by not providing spousal maintenance since March. The former couple have an eight-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son.
She said the accumulated amount has reached more than NT$5 million (S$220,000), as she applied to the Taipei District Court for enforcement.
This led to a social media rant by Wang on Weibo on Monday.
In a series of 21 posts over 12 hours, he made various allegations, including that Hsu and her sister, actress-host Dee Hsu, had a history of drug use, and that Barbie Hsu had secretly met DJ Koo in 2018. He also commented that the couple were still sleeping on a mattress that he claimed to have bought for almost NT$10 million.
Barbie Hsu released a statement on Wednesday, stating: "My sister and I cannot do drugs, because both of us have bad hearts. My sister works an average of four days a week and lives with her in-laws and children. There is no way for her to do drugs."
She added: "I myself am not interested in drugs. Taiwan does not allow for drugs, we are law-abiding."
As for the allegation of cheating, she said: "It is difficult to maintain or end a 10-year marriage, I do not have the strength and don't care to cheat."
Wang posted in response on Weibo, but later deleted the message which read: "I don't want to say anything anymore, burn the mattress, it's all in the past, let's not attack each other anymore."
The contentious mattress was then sent by Barbie Hsu to Taipei's S Hotel, which is owned by Wang.
On Wednesday, the hotel invited Taiwanese media to witness the destruction of the pricey and contentious mattress.
According to Taiwan's SETNews, which quoted the hotel manager, it cost NT$15,000 just to destroy the mattress as it was considered "bulky refuse" and the hotel had to hire a professional company to dispose of it.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.