The messy uncoupling between Taiwanese-American Mandopop star Wang Leehom and his ex-wife, Lee Jinglei, has continued to play out publicly over the last few days.
The pair, who announced their split in December, have made the headlines again. Wang, 45, is said to be taking Lee, 35, to court over their custody agreement.
Shortly after this news broke, Lee came out with a statement via her legal team, asking Wang to “stop making the same mistake again and stop hurting others and yourself.”
On Feb 11, it was reported on China’s 163.com news portal that Wang Leehom had submitted eleven pieces of evidence that his ex-wife had allegedly broken their custody agreement.
The couple has two daughters, seven-year-old Jiali, and five-year-old Jiana, as well as one son, one-year-old Jiayao. The three children live with their mother.
If Wang is able to prove Lee’s breach of the custody agreement, there could be serious consequences for his ex-wife, including a six-month jail sentence as well as a fine.
The report in 163.com, which is said to have been leaked by a Chinese netizen, also said that Lee has not been able to prove any of her accusations against Wang.
This newest filing marks the third time that the Mandopop star’s lawyers have filed motions against Lee.
In response, Lee’s lawyers took issue in their statement concerning the source of the leak, as the filing had been made anonymously and court documents have not been made public.
Lee claimed in turn that her former husband “ignored our agreement, froze our account and real estate property that could be used and disposed of according to the agreement, cut off our financial resources and filed the lawsuit in New York.”
The statement also claimed that Wang Leehom has been “reluctant to pay even the most basic child support and appealed to the New York court to make us pay for his legal fees.”
Lee appealed to Wang to “abide by the agreement, take responsibility for your promises, let go, end the matter as soon as possible, stop making the same mistake again and stop hurting others and yourself”.
Just as the whole world is celebrating Valentine’s Day, the estranged couple is proving to be more acrimonious than ever.
In December, shortly after the split was announced, Lee took to social media and released a multipage letter detailing Wang’s numerous infidelities during their marriage.
Last month, after having said before Christmas that she wanted to end the online drama between her and her ex-husband, she put up a new post on Instagram that made serious allegations against Wang Leehom.
She feared for her children’s safety and her own, she wrote, when three men arrived with Wang at her Taipei home, when he was supposed to visit their children, despite her asking him to come on his own.
Wang explained that he asked two staff members to go with him. Li, however, said that there was also a third man present whom she did not recognise.
In response to these accusations, Wang’s agency said that his lawyer had advised him not to visit his children on his own, but to be accompanied by a third party. The news portal sohu.com carried the statement from Wang’s agency, SCMP said.
“Because of the resistance from Lee Jinglei, Wang Leehom didn’t manage to see his children. Wang Leehom is very sad. He missed his children so much but he couldn’t hug them,” the statement read. /TISG