BEIJING - Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, who has been keeping a low profile since her tax evasion scandal in 2018, was spotted with a new man recently.
While she has not confirmed that she is in a relationship, there has been footage circulating allegedly of her behaving intimately outside a restaurant with a tall bespectacled man. He appeared to hug her and kiss her forehead, and she even caressed his tummy.
Eagle-eyed netizens also scrutinised a recent video of her singing karaoke and found a similar-looking man sitting next to her.
As news of her romance went viral on Weibo over the weekend, a netizen came forward to dish more juicy details on the rumoured boyfriend.
This person claimed to work in the financial company where the man was the chief executive.
Before that, he was said to have spent 18 years in the military and was the same age as Fan, 40.
Fan, who broke up with actor Li Chen, 43, in 2019 in the wake of her scandal, has been single ever since, hence the intense scrutiny into her love life.
Once one of China's most internationally renowned actresses, the scandal wiped out her career, as well as her personal fortune, as she was fined 883 million yuan for tax evasion.
However, in recent months, she is said to be on the brink of a comeback, as she recently made a guest appearance in K-drama Insider, which started airing on June 8.
The star of X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014) also graced her first cover in China for Glass magazine's June issue since the scandal broke.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.