Taiwanese star and former F4 member Ken Chu, 42, recently gave an interview to Taiwan’s Apple Daily, where he shared that he may have gotten COVID-19 months before it exploded into a global pandemic.

Ken recalled that in the second half of 2019, he was travelling around China putting on performances. Then, one day, he started suffering from a high fever and sore throat after doing a show in Huizhou.

“It felt different from a typical cold,” he said. “This time, it was really painful and there was a bitter taste at the back of my mouth.”

However, he thought his condition wasn’t serious enough to warrant medical treatment and decided to just take medicine to combat the symptoms as he had another show to prepare for the next day.

Ken’s wife, 40-year-old Chinese actress Vivien Han, was with him during this period, but he flew back to Taiwan alone in January 2020 to celebrate Chinese New Year. Not long after that, COVID struck, and he’s stayed there ever since.

When the vaccine became available, Ken asked his doctor if it was safe for him to get the shot as he has fibromyalgia, a chronic illness that causes widespread pain and fatigue. He also brought up his suspicions about already being infected before.

Ken then underwent an antibody test to check for evidence of any past infections, which determined that he had a number of antibodies that are produced after someone contracts the disease. This suggests that he had indeed gotten COVID-19 and recovered from it.

This means that there is a high chance that Vivien could have been infected as well, especially since Ken has the impression that she was feeling under the weather at one point.

Ken, whom haters have cruelly dubbed “the worst F4 member”, also opened up the disparity he felt between the quartet’s massive success during their peak and what he actually earned.

“I don’t know about the others, but the highest I’ve ever been paid was when we were ambassadors for the Tourism Bureau,” he said. “We were given NT$80mil (S$3.9mil) to split between the four of us. That’s the most I ever got.”

Even his solo concerts in Tokyo and Osaka weren’t the most lucrative, with Ken reporting that he would usually pocket US$20,000 (S$27,000) per gig. He would then spend the money on collecting antiques, which are now under the care of his wife in Beijing.

Photos: Ken Chu/Weibo, Vivien Han/Weibo, Apple Daily