Actress Jayley Woo pleads for reporters to stop hounding her family

Grieving actress Jayley Woo has pleaded for reporters to leave her family alone, after news of her boyfriend Aloysius Pang's death broke on Wednesday (Jan 23). 

The 28-year-old actor died after suffering serious chest and abdominal injuries from an accident during a Singapore Armed Forces military exercise in New Zealand. Jayley subsequently came out as his girlfriend on her Instagram account.

"I just got a text that some reporters went down to my house in Singapore to get comments from my family. Please don't. It's one thing to not respect me -- i'm fine with it -- but please do not touch my family," says actress Jayley Woo in her Instagram Stories Thursday night (24 Jan).

"I don't know what I would do if you did, so please don't -- I'm asking nicely now." 

In screenshots posted by her twin sister Hayley, it appears a reporter's namecard was left at their parents' residence.

"Please kindly do not stalk around the area (of my residence). If you do, I have a screenshot of your namecard -- it's my last warning," added Jayley.

The posts come a day after the siblings were hounded by a reporter from a Chinese language daily trying to get a scoop on Aloysius. A conversation in which the reporter said: "Aloysius would not have done it this way or to me" has since been deleted from Jayley's Instagram Stories.

While Hayley and Jayley played nice considerably, YouTube personalities Dee Kosh and Xiaxue could not help but go on a rant on social media, calling out and identifying the alleged reporter.

After the massive backlash, the reporter in question has since come out to apologise. Ang Ming Hwa, a senior entertainment correspondent with local newspapers Lianhe Zaobao and Wanbao, posted an apology to Jayley on his personal Instagram account today (Jan 25). 

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Writing in Chinese, the caption read: "With regards to the incident with Ms Jayley Woo, I will apologise personally to her for the pain that I have caused. While communicating with her, some words may have been unclear and may be easily misunderstood. I will explain to her personally."

Ang added that requesting for an interview with a victim's loved ones is simply an unpleasant part of a reporter's job: "I can't say that I am inexperienced, but perhaps I may have botched things up this time."

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Addressing nasty comments and threats left on his initial post, Ang followed it up with another note the same day:

"One should take responsibility for his own actions, and I will take all of the online criticisms directed at me. I must, however, make it clear that this has nothing to do with my innocent family members and my brilliant colleagues -- they may not see eye to eye with the way I do things, but please don't hurt them. Otherwise, you are no different from the me you speak of," wrote Ang.

According to the veteran reporter, some people have also taken advantage of the backlash to accuse him of things that he did not do.

"I will only take responsibility for the things that I've done," Ang wrote at the end of his second post, tagging Jayley.

Other celebrities have also jumped into the fray, rallying against such reporters.

Actress Kate Pang posted on Instagram today (25 Jan) after the exchanges between the two actresses and Ang went viral.

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"Since you understand that having our private lives exposed to the public is the price we have to pay as a celebrity, then you should know the difference between the 'cost (we have) to pay' versus 'duty'. Celebrities still have the right to speak out or maintain their silence," Kate wrote.

"This person you are writing about doesn't even understand the word respect," commented actress Cynthia Koh, responding to Kate's Instagram post.

Cynthia went on to post a quote -- "Respect is earned, not a given" -- in her Instagram Stories, which could have been directed at the situation.

It appears Ang is not the only one who has been slammed for insensitivity in the wake of Aloysius' death.

A guy with the Instagram handle seanlw_y took to his account to use Aloysius’ death as a "reminder to everyone that accidents do happen" and as such, get insured with him "so you won’t die with regret".

He too got flamed by netizens for capitalising on the tragic incident, subsequently posting an apology. 

Maybe we should all just take a leaf from a quote posted by local radio deejay Kimberly Wang:

Aloysius will be accorded a full military funeral with honours on Sunday, and the public can bid farewell to the actor from Saturday noon.

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lynette@asiaone.com