Prada sacks face of China in surrogate baby scandal
LUXURY label Prada has dropped actress Zheng Shuang as its public face in China after just one week over claims she abandoned two surrogate babies.
The 30-year-old – known as the Fairy – had the children in the US as surrogacy is banned in China, but split with partner Zhang Heng before their births.
He claims he is stranded in the US because he has to take care of the two children, born in 2019 and 2020.
And this week he released old voice recordings of Ms Zheng lamenting that the surrogate pregnancies were too far advanced for the children to be aborted.
It prompted thousands of people to leave messages on Prada’s Weibo social media account, branding the actress ‘vicious’ and ‘irresponsible’.
The 108-year-old Italian brand faced ridicule for hiring her and, after more than 100,000 comments, announced: ‘The Prada Group has terminated all cooperation with Ms Zheng Shuang.’
The actress yesterday insisted she had not violated laws in either China or the US, but did not deny the accusations.
‘It’s a very sad and private matter for me,’ she said on her Weibo account.
Surrogacy is illegal in China but going abroad to have surrogate children – particularly in the US – has become increasingly popular for wealthy couples.
According to Chinese media, Mr Zhang cannot bring the children to live there unless his ex signs paperwork.
China is an increasingly important market for luxury labels in the pandemic – its shoppers will account for around half of all global spending on high-end brands in 2020. Prada’s sales there were up 66 per cent last July.
‘The hit to Prada’s image is huge,’ said Huang Shengming, professor at the Communication University of China. ‘Their decision to stop working with Ms Zheng is an effort to cut their losses.’