Luigi Wewege Denies Romantic Affair With Auckland Mayor Len Brown’s Former Mistress Bevan Chuang
Luigi Wewege insists that he has not been in a relationship with Bevan Chuang, the former mistress of Auckland mayor Len Brown. The political adviser to failed mayoral candidate John Palino is adamant that his only fault was to pass on information about the mayor's two-year affair.
Ms Chuang revealed to the blog site Whale Oil her two-year affair with the mayor a few days after he was re-elected in October. Later on, she had admitted to the New Zealand Herald that she was pressured to expose her relationship with Mr Brown, who is married with three children, by Mr Wewege, a member of the right-wing politician's failed campaign staff.
She told the paper that she was in a relationship with Mr Wewege when he found out about her illicit connection with the mayor. He then pressured her to publish the story on the blog site before the election to ruin the mayor's reputation.
She has shown the Herald her "flirty" text messages with Mr Wewege as proof that he was persistent in telling her to reveal the affair.
"Baby can you get an incriminating text from Lenny.B and John said he would give me off every weekend until the election!" a text message he sent on August 28 reads.
"I can't get anything from Len. Text, phone call, nothing. So please stop asking and giving me pressure," Ms Chuang replied on the same day.
Mr Wewege has been adamant that he has never been in a relationship with Ms Chuang.
He released a statement on Sunday to "clarify" his position in the affair scandal, claiming that Ms Chuang told him that it's "out of her own free will" to come out with the story.
"I did not know her motives for this revelation at the time. I did not believe her story and therefore I asked her to provide proof," he said. "I passed this information on to whom I believed to be appropriate at the time.
"I did not know the extent of the allegations against Mayor Len Brown by Bevan Chuang until after the story broke on the blog of Cameron Slater," he continued, referring to the aforementioned Whale Oil site.
He also denied any romantic affiliation with Mr Brown's ex-mistress, saying, "I can appreciate Bevan Chuang trying to rehabilitate her image. However, I was never in a relationship with her."
In an earlier interview with the Herald, he explained the text messages Ms Chuang showed to the public, which suggested that the two were lovers.
"Relationship can mean different things. She is quite flirty in nature and we always have flirted like that."
