In a surprising announcement last month, mainland Chinese actress Zhao Wei, who rose to fame in her earlier years with her role as “Xiao Yanzi” in the hit drama series “My Fair Princess”, revealed that she had already divorced from businessman Huang Youlong on July 28. According to recent documents, it was disclosed that Zhao Wei had already separated from Huang Youlong on July 23, 2021, just before she faced a ban in August 2021.
On January 21, Zhao Wei submitted documents to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, indicating that she had divorced from Huang Youlong on July 23, 2021. She requested not to be considered as holding spousal rights in the 3.5 billion shares of “Shunlong Holdings (00361)” from that day onwards, effectively reducing her stake of 67.5% to zero.
Last December 28, Zhao Wei posted on her unblocked Weibo account announcing her divorce from Huang Youlong, stating that their marriage had legally ended years ago. The reason for her timing was related to Huang Youlong being pursued for debts by a company named Zhi Ze Venture Limited, who filed a claim in the Hong Kong High Court alleging overdue debts and interest amounting to approximately HK$3.72 billion, demanding a total repayment of HK$7.53 billion, referring to Huang Youlong as “Zhao Wei’s husband.”
Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong got married in 2008 and welcomed their daughter “Xiao Simu” in 2010, both active in the capital market. Previous reports mentioned that Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong were involved in market manipulation, using leverage to manipulate the market value of “Wanjia Culture” by 100 billion yuan with a leverage of 50 times, leading to both of them being fined 300,000 yuan each in 2018 and banned from the securities market for 5 years. Moreover, they faced numerous lawsuits from shareholders, including over 540 claims in 2019, with Zhao Wei alone facing more than 215 lawsuits.
On August 26, 2021, Zhao Wei’s film and television works were suddenly removed from all mainland platforms, her Weibo super topic was closed, unreleased works had their roles recast, and it became impossible to search for “Zhao Wei” on popular platforms like iQiyi, Youku, or Baidu Baike. It wasn’t until 2024 that her social media accounts were restored, and her videos were unblocked.
The reasons behind Zhao Wei’s sudden ban have sparked various speculations: some suggest her closeness to Jack Ma while others tie it to getting involved in political power struggles between Ceng Qinghong and Xi Jinping. Despite occasional rumors of a comeback in recent years, nothing concrete has materialized.