Zhang Heng has denied threatening former partner and actress Zheng Shuang in the past, after being accused to have done so by the latter’s legal counsel during the latest custody hearing, Sinchew reported.
Zhang, who was questioned during the second hearing on 6 April, dismissed the notion that his more than a hundred messages of wanting to kill Zheng and telling her to shut up was anything abusive, stating that it was an inside joke between them.
“There were hundreds of “I’ll kill you” in the chat records between us and both parties said it. It was a joke between friends. I had never threatened her, but her family did threaten mine,” he said.
Zhang also stated that he once asked one of the surrogates to record all interactions with Zheng Shuang, but that she refused with the excuse of not wanting to be involved. When lawyers asked if he had planned for those videos to be used in court, Zhang stated that he was worried that Zheng would buy the surrogates off due to the fact that she has a lot of money.
“I thought that if the surrogates were bought off, I could use this as evidence,” he added.
As for the previous voice recordings of Zheng Shuang and her family discussing about the children that were released to the public, Zhang denied knowing the culprit who did it, and added that he didn’t know that the matter had negatively impacted Zheng’s career.
When asked by the judge if he would be willing to allow the actress to spend more time with their children in the future, Zhang stated that what they need is a good mother and not one who had wanted to abandon them in the past.
“If she can change and treat the children well, I will let them spend more time with her. But I didn’t see her loving them that much nor did they feel the same about her. The second time they met, Lucas cried for 40 minutes,” he said.
The trial will reconvene in two weeks’ time.
Zheng Shuang has been in Denver since last month to fight for custody of her two kids Lucas and Luna. Zheng made headlines last January when ex-partner Zhang Heng accused her of abandoning their two children born through surrogacy. This has resulted in her losing various endorsements and filming projects.
(Photo Source: DuoWen)