The wildest scandals to hit Singapore in recent years

If there’s one thing Singaporeans love more than finding cafes offering strawberry matcha lattes and long weekends, it’s a juicy scandal—especially when it involves celebs or public figures who, up till then, seemed squeaky clean. Recently, the Ian Fang saga had everyone clutching their pearls and refreshing their feeds. Apparently, the former Mediacorp actor was sentenced to 40 months in jail after pleading guilty to multiple sexual offences involving a 15-year-old girl.

But Ian’s drama is just the latest in a string of eyebrow-raising scandals that have shaken Singapore. From leaked messages to full-blown exposés, we’ve rounded up some of the most jaw-dropping cases that have made headlines in recent years.

Ian Fang 

By now, we’re probably familiar with the name Ian Fang – but for all the wrong reasons. For those who didn’t know, Ian Fang was sentenced to 40 months in jail after pleading guilty to multiple sexual offences involving a 15-year-old girl. Ian met the girl at an event in 2024, where he was working as an acting coach at a child modelling school. After getting to know each other, they exchanged contact information and continued talking to each other. 

In June 2024, almost a month after their exchange, Ian and the victim had engaged in nine sexual encounters, most of them unprotected, even though Fang knew the girl was 15. In fact, there was one occasion when the victim was hospitalised for a flu infection, after which Ian decided to enter her room after midnight when her mother had left, and had sex with her there too. Eventually, the girl complained about experiencing pain around her genital area, and she was found to have contracted human papillomavirus (HPV).

Later on in August, the victim was admitted to the Institute of Mental Health and diagnosed with adjustment disorder.

Gunalan Morgan

The 43-year-old radio jockey was caught red-handed in 2024 for committing voyeurism involving two women and engaging in sexual communication with an underage girl, both on separate occasions.

According to court documents, Gunalan allegedly had sexual communication with an underage girl on four separate occasions during the time period from Aug 25 to Aug 31 in 2024. Gunalan then proceeded to delete his conversations with her on Instagram the next month after he had found out that a police report was lodged against him. But that’s not all, as a matter of fact, Gunalan had also allegedly used his phone to record a woman’s intimate parts on four different occasions without her consent on 28 August, 2024. He also committed to something similar involving another woman in that same year, in October.

Carrie Wong 

Remember the Carrie Wong and Ian Fang scandal of 2019? Leaked DMs between the two actors went viral, exposing a flirty exchange filled with sexual innuendos. For instance, Ian joked about “planting strawberries” AKA love bites. At the time, Carrie was still dating Taiwanese model Boris Lin, while Ian was rumoured to be seeing Rebecca Lim.

Both Carrie and Ian denied being romantically involved, however, the internet wasn’t buying it. Their agency called the messages “distasteful and inappropriate,” and the scandal quickly became one of the juiciest entertainment dramas of the year.

Joal Ong 

Influencer Christabel Chua (@bellywellyjelly)’s private videos with her ex-boyfriend of four years and fellow YouTuber Joal Ong were leaked and disseminated without her permission after Joal Ong’s cloud backup system was hacked. Christabel was not the only one—more than 50 sex tapes belonging to Joal were purportedly released. Investigations are underway.

Christabel later wrote an open letter, which was published in Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, acknowledging how the incident had left her “scared, humiliated, violated”. She became the subject of lewd discussions and received rude and inappropriate messages. To her, “the Internet became a major source of pain and torment”, she shared. She went on to say that she stands against cyberbullying and sexual harassment, and hopes that those going through a similar situation will reach out to those around them and find the strength to carry on.

Jack Neo 

In 2010, freelance model Wendy Chong revealed to Lianhe Wanbao that she had been having an affair with Jack Neo for two years. She was 22 years old then, while Jack was 50 years old.

Jack later held a press conference where he admitted to his mistake and asked for kindness. His wife Irene Kng, who was also at the press conference, said that she forgave Jack and would stay with him. She also collapsed after giving her statement and had to be carried off the stage.

Years later, the couple seems to be going strong - they will be married for 37 years this year.