Media outlets were criticized for the photos they used to cover the news of comedian Ali Wong’s divorce. Now, one magazine is apologizing.
Parade magazine issued an apology Wednesday to the Asian American comedian and her husband, Justin Hakuta, after misidentifying Hakuta as her former co-star Randall Park in a photo. The image of the two, from their 2019 film “Always Be My Maybe,” accompanied an article saying Wong and Hakuta were divorcing after eight years together.
For years, the “Don Wong” star has shared jokes and stories about her relationship with Hakuta, a Harvard Business School graduate and Fulbright scholar. The couple has two children: Mari, born in 2015, and Nikki, born in 2017.
MSN was also criticized for using a photo of Park instead of Hakuta.
“The inaccurate image has been fixed and we are working to prevent this type of error from happening again,” a Microsoft spokesperson told NBC News.
Following the controversy, people have been re-upping the hashtag “WrongAsian” on Twitter and calling out the incident.
Kirstin Chen, the author of “Counterfeit,” tweeted that she had a similar experience.
“A book professional just left a review for my book on a trade site that was clearly about another asian female author’s book,” Chen wrote in a tweet, adding that she is tired of “being flattened, disregarded, reduced.”
