This Is How Mediacorp Actor Desmond Tan Got Harassed By Male Fan For 8 Years

By elaine.kiew on 14 Sep 2018

"You know who I am, right?"

In a recent interview with Toggle, Mediacorp actor Desmond Tan revealed that he hasn't changed his phone number since he got his first phone in secondary school.

He also shared that someone got his phone number by chance during his army days and would call him every few days after he debuted, asking him "You know who I am, right?"

"He would ask me… pretty sensitive things, and I told him that I didn't know what he was talking about and to stop harassing me. He's pretty young so he asked me about what I feel about certain issues. I replied him with positive things, but he thought that he stood a chance (with me). This entire thing lasted for many years."

Desmond also revealed that this 'harassment' went on for "seven to eight years". In the past, he would reply the fan with longer messages but over time, he eventually ignored all the messages.

The fan would even go to the extent of using various unknown numbers to call Desmond.

"It was pretty scary.. I warned him that I would call the police if he kept doing this, but of course, I didn't want to go to that extent unless he went overboard."

Too busy to 'blue tick' anyone

Desmond is currently in the midst of filming for the Toggle-ViuTV drama Blue Tick. When asked if he would 'blue tick' anyone (on WhatsApp), he said:

"Usually, when I'm filming, I won't even look at my phone, so it's not even a situation where I blue tick someone. It's more like I don't even have time to open the message to see what it says!"

The 32-year-old also goes on to explain that actors are usually bad at returning messages due to their long and irregular working hours.

"Sometimes, by the time I finish filming and get home, it'll be after 10pm. It's a bit too late to reply messages because others might be resting by that time, so I usually prefer to wait until the next day. However, if I start work at 7am the next day, it'll be too early for me to send a message before I start work, so I'll wait for the afternoon (lunch break) to reply. That's why it can take 24 hours for me to respond to texts sometimes."

The Mediacorp actor also revealed that he saves many of his celebrity friends' phone numbers under code names just in case he lose his phone one day.

What he's up to these days

Desmond has been away from Singapore to film the variety show Away With My BFF in which he was paired with fellow veteran actor Chen Han Wei.

About Blue Tick

The inaugural Toggle-ViuTV co-production is ongoing with Bluetick, a 20-eps suspense drama starring Desmond Tan and local actors Ya Hui, Jeffrey Xu and Sheila Sim alongside Hong Kong celebrities Wong You Nam, Liu Kai Chi, Law Kar Ying, Bonde Sham, Scarlett Wong, Dixon Wong, Colin Chan and Hailey Chan.

Based on Hong Kong author Ray Leung's novel SEEN, Bluetick revolves around 10 strangers who attend their mutual friend's funeral. One of the attendees then sends a message to the deceased friend and shockingly receives a 'blue tick', which meant that the deceased has read the message.

Now... Who's excited for Bluetick? I am. Jiayou Sergeant Loke!