The Vietnamese man Michelle Mone mistook for a “six-year-old” boy has been revealed as a 22-year-old estate agent.
The man in question, Nguyen Tan Phat, has come forward and corrected widespread reports that he was a 46-year-old married man, explaining he is in his early twenties and is single.
The Glaswegian entrepreneur and Conservative peer scooped up what she thought was a young boy to pose for a photo on stage at an entrepreneurs’ conference in Vietnam.
Following the realisation that he was, in fact, a “man”, the 44-year-old Baroness of Mayfair, who is the founder of lingerie company Ultimo, expressed deep humiliation at the “embarrassing moment”.
Writing in a Facebook post titled “The truth behind the man who is 46 years old”, Tan Phat explained he had looked this way since he was 6-years-old and corrected Mone’s claims his teeth “were bright yellow from nicotine”.
“I never had a wife or lover and I have never smoked yellow teeth is due to something other causes,” he explained.
Previous reports claimed a woman in the front row had shouted “Put him down – I’m his wife!” after Mone posed for a photo with the man.
The incident prompted a mixed reaction on Twitter. While many found the saga humorous, with June Sarpong writing, “Hilarious, brings new meaning to picking up a man”, others were less than pleased. “So your multiplying the mans humiliation by tweeting it to amuse your brain dead supporters,” wrote one user. While another said, “Most people be too shamed to admit to that never mind tweet it. Not funny.“
