It’s unfortunate that I had to learn about who Xinde Yap was only when shit hit the fan for him. He’s actually a Singaporean influencer (70.2k followers, don’t play play) and he got plenty of exposure after he went public, admitting to cheating on his wife, Paix Wang. His “manager” is none other than another scandal-ridden individual Dee Kosh.
Apparently, Xinde Yap married Paix Wang in January 2020, and the couple became parents to a baby girl in May this year. You do the Math and you’ll see that marriage was not completely planned.
While most folks would like to keep such matters private, Xinde Yap and his wife decided to go public with it. He said: “I am doing this post to own up to mistakes I have made as a husband and as a father.”
He also said that he regretted his actions and promised to work on the marriage, promising to be a better person, better father and better husband and that he did not deserve her, vowing to work doubly hard to protect our family.
He explained that he was going public and coming clean because he and his wife Paix are being “blackmailed” by someone who threatened to expose his affair with a third party.
Standing with her husband, Paix Wang said that the third party “invited him to her house and initiated the physical cheating despite knowing Xinde is married and has a newborn. I am disappointed in her shameless advancement leading to their behaviour. When the girl realised that I was supporting Xinde through every tough conversation along the way, she began sending me screenshots of their conversations and sharing intimate details of their affair”.
Apparently, this other woman also threatened to air her affair with Xinde Yap in public. To neutralise the threat, the couple decided to bite the bullet and go public with it even before she did. Some sources said that she asked for $20,000. Some sources said the amount was undisclosed.
Interestingly, there were so many moralists among the interested netizens. Many were quick to point out the “shotgun”. The mysterious other woman was vilified, but being mysterious, we have not heard her side of the story, have we? Many sympathised with Paix Wang. Others felt that Paix shouldn’t have forgiven Xinde so easily. And as usual, influencer-bashing came in. This is the part that intrigues me – not that I want to join in the virtual bashing, but I think there is always an element of envy in all this influencer-bashing. For me, I definitely envy his 70k followers. Maybe my books would sell better. Maybe not.
The important point here is that though I think Xinde Yap is probably a playboy, I don’t want to be morally judgemental about him. He could still be a nice and responsible guy to his friends and parents. He could just be an ordinary guy. The issue I have is not so much his morals but his mediocrity. What is he so good at that distinguishes him from other guys who sleep around? Take Charles Dickens for instance and Cao Xueqin. What does his followers see in him? What has he done apart from taking selfies and dropping a few corny lines to deserve the fame and attention? If this happened to Joseph Schooling, I would certainly be interested. But Xinde Yap? How does one explain his popularity?
Former prime minister Goh Chok Tong once caused quite a stir in the community when he opined that salaries not in the millions would attract mediocre people. How does mediocrity attract 70k followers? I don’t get it.
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