Back in 2013, Nicole Seah Asked SPH for an Apology After Articles Suggested That She Was Dating a Married Man

Nicole Seah being accused of dating a married man isn’t something new.

Back in 2013, the same thing happened, and two mainstream news platforms were made to apologise in the loudest way possible.

Here’s what happened during the year when we realised that riots were still a thing.

Nicole Seah Suggested to be Dating a Married Man

Back in November 2013, news site AsiaOne and Lianhe Wanbao ran a story on Nicole Seah and social site CEO Steven Goh.

Nicole Seah Steven Goal Asiaone Report
Image: Mumbrella

The articles suggested that Seah was dating a married man:

  • AsiaOne: Nicole Seah uploads photo of her with a man believed to be married
  • Lianhe Wanbao: “Nicole Seah posts intimate photo of herself with a married man on Facebook

Unfortunately, for both reports, they were missing a crucial detail: The man was no longer married.

He was married in 2009 and divorced in 2011.

Nicole Seah: “Gutter Journalism at its Finest”

nicole seah deny facebook post
Image: Screengrab from Nicole Seah Facebook Page via mitsueki.sg

Seah immediately responded to the articles, calling them “gutter journalism at its finest”.

It was added that no one called to clarify the matter before go ahead with publishing the story.

The media platforms in question quietly changed their headlines and stories quietly but the damage was already done.

Nicole Seah Asked SPH for an Apology

In a follow-up post, Seah expressed her intention to seek an official apology from Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), the company behind both news platform.

You can read her entire post below but here’s the TL; DR: Apologise for your irresponsible reporting or I will sue you. Don’t bully me just because I’m from the opposition. Also, please straighten your act.

nicole seah facebook post asking for official apology
Image: Screengrab from Nicole Seah Facebook Page via mitsueki.sg

Members of the public were also caught up in the saga, and both AsiaOne and Lianhe Wanbao suffered huge public backlash.

SPH Apologised For The Reports

On 28 Nov 2013, AsiaOne and Lianhe Wanbao issued an apology to Seah over the inaccurate reporting.

The apology were published on the respective websites.

asiaone apology to nicole seah
Image: TOC

Apologising to the couple, the editor said that the headline and first line of the article did not correctly reflect the rest of the article’s content.

The content indicated that Mr Goh is divorced and not presently married.

apology to nicole seah
Image: Screengrab from Facebook (Wake Up Singapore)

In Lianhe Wanbao’s apology, it was added that the article had initially stated that the man’s marriage status isn’t clear.

Meanwhile, if you want to catch up on the recent scandalous happenings in parliament, here’s a quick 4-minute-19-second video for you: