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| Xu Kai’s Career Hit Hard After Ex Admits Cheating Rumour Was a “Joke” |
Chinese actor Xu Kai, best known for Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略), has been caught up in one of the strangest scandals of the year.
What started as a headline-making cheating accusation has now flipped completely, after his ex-girlfriend Xu Lisha admitted the whole thing began as a “prank” with her friends — but the fallout for Xu Kai’s career has been anything but funny.
How It All Started
The controversy broke out when Xu Lisha posted on Weibo, hinting that Xu Kai was secretly seeing someone else.
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Screenshots and blurry hotel photos spread fast, with gossip sites picking it up and fans questioning Xu Kai’s personal life.
Xu Lisha later revealed in a livestream that the accusations weren’t meant to go this far.
She said she only wanted to “tease Xu Kai” after he left a shared WeChat group.
According to her, she warned him jokingly, “If you leave, I’ll see you on Weibo.”
When Xu Kai exited anyway, she and her friends cooked up a prank using a small account with just 200 followers.
They posted fake material online, assuming it would just irritate Xu Kai’s fans and maybe get his manager, Yu Zheng, to reach out.
When a Prank Gets Out of Hand
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Instead of a quiet phone call, Yu Zheng hit back with a very public statement, accusing Xu Lisha of harassment and threatening police involvement.
Overnight, the prank turned into a full-blown scandal.
Xu Lisha insisted she didn’t mean to destroy Xu Kai’s reputation and never thought things would spiral.
Yet, she stood firm on one thing: “Everything I said was true, not a single lie.” She claimed the now-viral images of Xu Kai were real — but not taken by her.
Instead, she hinted they came from another woman whose identity she refused to reveal.
The Damage to Xu Kai’s Career
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While the truth now looks messy and contradictory, Xu Kai’s career has taken the bigger hit. His new drama Midnight Return (子夜归) started strong with ratings and sponsors lining up, but the scandal scared off advertisers.
Even his co-star Tian Xiwei, who was meant to ride the wave of their on-screen couple branding, got dragged down. The series was eventually rushed to an early conclusion and quietly pulled off streaming platforms.
Online, opinion is split.
Some netizens accuse Xu Lisha of clout-chasing or even trying to extort attention. Others feel sorry for Xu Kai, arguing he didn’t deserve his project and reputation being trashed over what began as a “joke.”
Either way, the mess has left a mark. Even though Xu Lisha has backtracked, Xu Kai now faces the long road of repairing both his image and career momentum. In the world of Chinese entertainment, where one scandal can derail years of hard work, that might be the toughest part of all.
Source: Weibo/Upmedia.