As Internet stories go, this one has had a long life, reported and reposted in various forms for a decade, according to Snopes.com. In it, a Chinese man divorces his wife and then sues her–successfully–for giving birth to an “extremely ugly baby.”
But just like the woman who said she would give fat-shaming letter to overweight kids at Halloween, this story is “probably false.”
The story made the rounds again this time last year after the Irish Times reported that Jian Feng accused his wife of cheating on him because he was sure “he could never father an unattractive child.” As the story goes, Feng’s ex confessed to extensive plastic surgery and he won the lawsuit, according to the Huffington Post.
Then it popped up again last week with Newsnet5.com among the websites sharing the story.
However, we have since learned that, in addition to Snopes, the Huffington Post is reporting that the story is likely an urban legend given legs by numerous outlets online since 2004.
A picture that has accompanied the story of late—featuring a family with three kids—is part of an advertisement by a plastic surgeon in Taiwan, as reported by Rocket News.
Snopes adds that the Heilongjiang Morning Post, where the story originally ran, has a history of publishing stories that aren’t first verified and later turn out to be false.
In their amended story, Fox31 in Denver notestheir report originally came from MSN, which deleted the post.
A divorce is like an amputation you survive but there's less of you
