Ever since The Story of Yanxi Palace stars Wu Jinyan and Hong Yao’s surprise marriage annoucement on Sep 13, the latter’s past scandals have been thrust into the limelight, including how he once cheated on his girlfriend with an underaged influencer.
Apparently, Hong Yao, 32, still has quite the wandering eye, at least that’s what netizens believe.
Recently, a netizen “complained” to Jinyan’s manager Yu Zheng, claiming Hong Yao followed a sexy model, who goes by the handle @ivypoon, on Instagram the very day he and Jinyan got hitched.
“Teacher Yu, see who Hong Yao followed on Instagram,” posted the netizen, along with a screenshot of the model’s IG, peppered with sultry bikini pics, in the comment section of Yu Zheng’s Weibo.
However, not only was Yu Zheng unbothered by the matter, he came to Hong Yao’s defense, saying “everyone has an appreciation for beauty” and that “it’s normal behaviour for a man to look”.
“Don’t expect every man to be a monk… Being able to openly and freely appreciate beautiful things is great. What era do you think we’re living in? Seriously,” he added.
When one netizen questioned if it’s normal for a married man to be looking at such sexy snaps, Yu Zheng replied: “Yes, it’s normal. What’s the big deal? Is this the Qing Dynasty? Hilarious. You should install a chastity memorial in your future boyfriend’s mind.”
Following the brouhaha, Hong Yao quickly unfollowed the model.
Hong Yao is known more for his messy love life than his acting work, and many netizens skeptical of his marriage to Jinyan.
In 2015, he cheated on his make-up artist girlfriend of two years with an underaged influencer, who was then 16, and intimate bedroom photos of the pair were leaked.