Surprise! Yanxi Palace co-stars Wu Jinyan and Hong Yao are married

Chinese actors Wu Jinyan and Hong Yao unexpectedly announced their marriage on Friday (Sept 13).

Jinyan posted a photo of their red marriage certificate booklets on Weibo, writing: "We collected these today."

The 34-year-old also shared a photo of herself with her husband and Story of Yanxi Palace co-star.

Hong Yao, 32, also shared the same photos and wrote: "We got married today."

Their surprise announcement was met with disbelief by some netizens.

"Is it April Fool's Day today?" a fan commented on Jinyan's post.

Their Yanxi Palace co-star Charmaine Sheh, however, congratulated the couple in the comments.

Jinyan played the lead role Wei Yingluo in the 2018 drama, who enters the court of the Qianlong emperor as a maid to investigate the murder of her sister but rises up the ranks to become the empress herself.

While Hong Yao was cast as the villainous Prince He who raped Yingluo's sister and played a part in her death, it turns out he is Jinyan's prince charming in real life - despite years of denial.

As early as 2019, Jinyan and Hong Yao were speculated to be a couple after he accidentally posted a photo of them smiling in each other's arms on Weibo.

He quickly deleted the photo and Yanxi Palace producer-screenwriter Yu Zheng, who also co-founded the management agency both stars are under, attempted to do damage control by claiming that the photo was taken to promote their upcoming drama Fighting Youth, which aired in 2021.

Paparazzi have also caught them on rumoured dates together as well as Hong Yao entering the same apartment complex as Jinyan over the years.

Following the actors' marriage announcement on Friday, Yu Zheng also posted the same photos as the couple, writing: "It is an auspicious day with the arrival of double happiness.

Naysayers flooded the comment section of his Weibo post but the 46-year-old remained his actors' number one supporter.

When asked by a netizen why he didn't "stop" Jinyan, he responded: "Why should I stop her? A girl should get married when she grows up."

Another asked how Jinyan could get married when she was still acting in dramas.

"Acting is acting, life is life, we are not idols," he replied.

When a netizen asked him why he lied about the couple's relationship back in 2019, Yu Zheng retorted: "Is it not okay if you don't want others to know about your private life?"

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drimac@asiaone.com

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