KUALA LUMPUR: Popular actress Emma Maembong has refuted a recent rumour circulating about her being a swinger.
"I did see (the rumour) and I know about it. But, it has nothing to do with me. So, why bother?" she questioned.
She said she does not entertain such baseless gossip as she did not want it to affect her responsibility in raising her children.
"From before until now, people talk about me and say all sorts of things. But as you know, if something has nothing to do with me, I won't respond. I won't entertain it at all because what's the point of reacting?
"If something exists, it would be circulating for some time. I have a husband and children. These things circulate on social media. I don't want my children to grow up seeing such inappropriate things.
"If something is true, I will say whether it's true or otherwise. But, if it's just gossip like this, there are many other gossips that have 'shot' me down in the past. I am deflecting or anything. I simply won't entertain such gossip," she told Harian Metro.
Emma, 32, said this was not the first time other people have implicated her in vicious rumours.
She said before she married, there were rumours such as one which claimed she liked to frequent night clubs and the one related to her dressing.
"I have faced so much slander and accusations, so much so they're like my 'best friends'. My 'close friends'. So, how do we deal with it?
"Even when I took off my hijab, there were many edited pictures of me. But, when I look back, I thought to myself, 'Wow, I'm beautiful!'. Even then, I didn't make any comments," she said.
Asked about her husband Muhammad Shazli Azhar's reaction to the latest rumour, Emma said her husband has always understood the challenges that comes with her celebrity status.
"I've also been in relationships with people who could not accept rumours. It caused trouble and led to disputes in our relationship.
"So, before getting married, I was very honest with my husband as he was marrying an actress."
Emma said she usually would have to calm Shazli down every time he starts to get annoyed by a baseless comment hurled at her.
"Sometimes, if he reads such comments, he gets annoyed and wants to reply. Then I tell him, don't bother."
When asked whether she will seek legal action for defamation as it damages her reputation as a public figure, Emma said she did not want to waste her time to do such a thing.