Earlier this year, photos of Taiwanese stars Annie Yi and Harlem Yu’s 18-year-old son Harrison Yu in drag were discovered by netizens and went viral online, and unfortunately, not all the comments were exactly very nice.

While the sassy teen doesn’t seem to care about what haters have to say these days (he proudly declared himself a “femboy 4ever” on Instagram a few months ago), it turns out he was initially worried about how his loved ones might be affected by the saga.

In a recent episode of Chinese variety show My Ideal Home, Annie, 52, revealed that when photos of her son in drag started receiving a lot of media attention, it had a negative impact on his personal and school life. However, he was more concerned about his mum.

“He called me and the first thing he said was, ‘Will you get hurt? Will this affect your work? Should I shut down my social media accounts and stop posting things?’” Annie recalled. “I told him there was no need to do that and that he doesn’t have to bear any responsibility for anything that comes from his mum and dad's careers.”

The singer also told her son that he is much more important to her than her career, which led him to breathe a sigh of relief and say, “I’m free.”

“I said, yes, from today onwards, you are free. Remember that. You can be yourself completely,” replied Annie.

Annie went on to say that not only will Harrison not cause any trouble for his family, he will be able to let everyone see that freedom, respecting others’ decisions to be themselves, and parents giving their children the freedom to be themselves are all extremely precious things.

Her touching and eloquent response brought tears to the eyes of some of her fellow guests. Viewers were also moved by her words and praised her for being a good mother.

Annie and Harlem tied the knot in 2000, had Harrison in 2002, and divorced in 2009. Annie went on to marry Chinese actor Qin Hao, with whom she has a four-year-old daughter, while Harlem has two kids with Jinny Chang, his newscaster wife of four years.

Photos: Harrison Yu/Instagram, Annie Yi/Weibo, China HunanTV Official Channel/YouTube