Taiwanese singer and actress Ella Chen, 34, has taken to Facebook to deny the revived rumours that she had undergone a sex change.
On Sunday night, the singer wrote, “The gossip is getting out of hand, and I must explain myself. I, Ella Chen, have not had a sex change.”
She added a plug for her Christmas night concert in Guangzhou, and ended with, “P.S. I must stop cracking jokes about having gone for gender reassignment.”
Ella’s husband, Malaysian businessman Alvin Lai, stood up for her on Facebook, calling her beautiful beyond measure and telling the conspiracy theorists to be quiet. But he jokingly mentioned Ella’s traits that he considered faults: thick eyebrows, manly behaviour, a poor constitution and weak joints.
Since her debut with the Taiwanese girl group S.H.E., Ella has been known for her low alto singing voice and her daring and boyish demeanour, which led to rumours that she had been born a hermaphrodite.
Her record company, HIM International Music, issued a statement that read: “The recent online news that Ella had undergone a sex change in secret are untrue and misleading, having been rewritten and reproduced numerous times, and are damaging to the reputation of Ella and HIM International Music.”