Actress Jeanette Aw reveals she was sexually harassed by a foreigner over 20 years ago

SINGAPORE – Local actress Jeanette Aw has revealed that she was sexually harassed by a foreigner more than 20 years ago.

In the latest episode of her YouTube show JA Unscripted, uploaded on Aug 31, she invited actress Cynthia Koh, her co-star in the long-running drama Holland V (2003), for a baking challenge.

Aw, who runs the patisserie Once Upon A Time, was a co-host and judge on local reality baking competition show Creme De La Creme in 2021 and 2024.

The 46-year-old said at the start of the JA Unscripted episode that she still addresses Koh, 51, as “Third Sis”,  a carry-over from their Holland V days.

In the popular TV series that revolved around the Mo family operating a nasi lemak cafe in Holland Village, Aw played fourth sister Mo Jingjing and Koh was third sister Mo Yanyan.

Aw said: “The incident about Third Sis that has left the deepest impression on me was when we once went out to eat with Second Sis (played by Patricia Mok). We then proceeded to another place to have a drink. Third Sis and Second Sis were walking in front of me.

“There was a foreigner inside who grabbed my hand and pulled me over. He was watching some porn video and pulled me over to watch. I went back and told Third Sis and Second Sis.”

Aw did not disclose where the incident took place or the nationality of the man, but she used the Chinese term “yang ren”, which could mean a Westerner or Caucasian.

“Third Sis then stood up, walked over to the foreigner and said, ‘I tell you, don’t ever do this kind of thing to my sister again.’ I felt then, wow, I have a very protective sister.”

Aw said the foreigner did the same thing to another customer, and the police later arrived.

A person who was off-screen during the taping of the YouTube episode then asked Koh: “As you saw the foreigner being taken away by the police, you forgot what you did? You were looking at the foreigner and saying, ‘Good. Orbi good.’” “Orbi good” means serves you right in Singlish.

Both Aw and Koh laughed, and Aw said: “I have an impression of that too. And he was taken away by the police.”

Koh then recalled a similar incident happening to her.

“Once, at the old Zouk, a guy touched my butt,” she said, referring to the local nightclub’s Jiak Kim Street premises, which it vacated in 2016. “I grabbed his hand, turned it around and said, ‘Say sorry now. If you don’t say sorry, I call security.’”

She said the man apologised profusely.

Koh won her first Best Supporting Actress accolade for her role in TV series Hope Afloat (2024) at the Star Awards in July. The certified sound therapy practitioner went on to talk about how she has been focusing on her sound healing sessions.

“The interesting part about the practice is that you get to understand different situations,” she said, adding that she has helped elderly people with dementia and patients suffering from cancer.

“When cancer patients come (to my sessions), they understand that sometimes it’s not only about the disease, but it’s also about their state of mind,” she said.