SINGAPORE — Actress Joanne Peh has spoken out for the first time on gossip surrounding her relationship with husband Qi Yuwu when it first started.
The couple had made a surprise announcement that they were dating in 2013, one month after her break-up from actor-DJ Bobby Tonelli.
Rumours began swirling then that their romance was a sham to drum up publicity for the Star Awards.
Qi, 45, and Peh, 39, were nominated for the Top 10 Most Popular Male and Female Artistes categories respectively that year, which were open to public voting, and went on to win the awards.
The celebrity couple married in secret a year later and now have two children, aged five and seven.
Peh addressed the gossip from all those years ago in the latest episode of Streamers Go Live, a reality show which pits two teams of celebrities in selling products using livestreams.
"At the time, there were a lot of rumours, even our colleagues were talking (about the relationship)," she said.
"I was very hurt, because I could be working fine with a colleague one day, only to realise he was thinking that our relationship was made up."
She added: "Would I use my relationship for the sake of publicity? But we decided not to address the rumours and let time prove everything."
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.