TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese singer Aaron Yan (炎亞綸) admitted to having a relationship with a male TikToker who was only 16 years old at the time and alleged that the two made sex tapes together, which were later leaked.
Taiwanese TikToker Raku first became well-known when he was 16, when he went by the handle Ming Yang (冥樣). However, in 2018, a sex video with his ex-boyfriend was leaked, and the trauma from the incident led him to drop out of his third year of high school and revert to his real first name Yao-le (耀樂) and English handle Raku, reported ETtoday.
Amid the recent "Me Too" revelations in Taiwan, Raku at 8 p.m. on Tuesday (June 20), uploaded a post to Instagram naming the man on the tapes as Yan, and that they were filmed by a third party. Raku wrote that even after five years, he was still having difficulty coping with the traumatic experience: "I really, really can't take it anymore."
Raku also alleged that he later found out that Yan was dating many other men at the time and that he even received phone calls late at night from one of Yan's other partners. According to Raku, because these incidents continued for half a year, he decided to break up with Yan.
At 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Yan responded to Raku's post on his Facebook page. Yan started out by thanking Raku for being willing to speak out and "giving me the opportunity to face the ticking time bomb I have always been afraid of." Yan wrote that he was not proud of his "past self" and wrote that he had a lot of issues and acted in distorted ways in relationships.
Yan confirmed in the post that he had been in a relationship with Raku, and even mentioned that he had helped Raku find a house and pay his rent. He pointed out that when in a relationship, there often can be quarrels and acknowledged that when he was dating Raku, he "failed to properly communicate, neglected too many things, and he did not have the ability and wisdom to handle the breakup."
Regarding the 2018 leak of the sex tapes, Yan emphasized that he did not voluntarily release the footage. He wrote that after he carried out an investigation, he concluded that the footage was most likely accessed when he went to have his phone repaired one day.
Yan claimed that he tried to the best of his ability to have an attorney help take the video down. He claimed that he and Raku still remained in contact last year, as recently as September, when Yan claimed Raku asked him for help in promoting a voting event, and "as a friend, of course, I naturally agreed."
The singer expressed his willingness to face the mistakes of those years:
"This incident is the result of my own personal feelings. Once again, I would like to say sorry to everyone for setting the worst example. I used to be a very bad person, so I spent a lot of time, constantly seeking help, attending various counseling sessions and courses. I know that I should face it, not run away, and only by looking directly at my rotten inner can the rotten flesh be removed, and only by facing my own distortion can the distortion be corrected."
He then expressed his willingness to apologize to Raku in person, "accompany him through all the pain, and do whatever I can to make it up."
