Kris Wu's alleged predatory behaviour causes brands to cut ties with him
Amid claims of luring underaged girls into having sex with him, luxury and lifestyle brands are distancing themselves from the Chinese-Canadian singer and actor. Wu has denied the allegations.
Chinese-Canadian singer and actor Kris Wu. (Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP)
As luxury and lifestyle companies continue to engage Chinese celebrities as brand ambassadors, one star has landed in hot waters. Several brands in China have deleted or hid their advertisements featuring top celebrity Kris Wu after controversial claims that he lured underaged girls for sex emerged.
Wu, former member of K-pop band EXO, is one of the top brand ambassadors in China, serving as the face of Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari, Porsche, L’Oreal, Lancome, Kans and more. He is also the face of Tencent’s popular video game King Of Glory and kitchen appliances manufacturer Vatti.
Shanghai-based beauty brand Kans was the first to cut ties. On Sunday (Jul 18), the brand announced on Weibo that it had terminated Wu’s endorsement contract.
Porsche, Vatti and King Of Glory meanwhile deleted all Weibo posts mentioning Wu by Sunday. Louis Vuitton temporarily hid all posts featuring Wu but made them public again shortly after, WWD reported.
Wu was accused of predatory behaviour and infidelity by rumoured girlfriend Du Meizhu, a 19-year-old college student, on Jul 8. She shared unverified screenshots of alleged conversations between Wu and underaged girls on Weibo.
Du further revealed that Wu used various methods to identify and lure young girls for sex such as using a special WeChat account to contact them under the guise of casting them as female leads for music videos, or signing them under his label. He allegedly lured them into playing drinking games.
In a statement, Wu and his team denied the allegations, calling it “malicious slander”. They claimed to have filed a defamation lawsuit against Du.
Wu also took to Weibo to deny the accusations. “I have only seen Ms Du once during a friendly gathering on Dec 5. Nobody was plied with alcohol, no phones were taken away, and absolutely none of those 'details' she described took place,” Wu wrote.
