Canadian singer-songwriter Michael Bublé said he has become the victim of cyberbullying after jokingly elbowing his wife in a live-streamed video.
The 44-year-old singer and his 32-year-old wife—Argentinian model Luisana Lopilato—have been posting videos on social media daily during the COVID-19 outbreak to lift the spirits of fans living under lockdown.
Grammy award winner Bublé became the target of digital vitriol after nudging Lopilato in the side with his elbow then pulling her towards himself during a recent live-streamed video.
“Anyone who watches them on Facebook Live every day can see that this is a beautiful partnership filled with love,” said Bublé's representative. “[The allegations of abuse are] a failed effort of cyber bullying.”
Bublé's wife was quick to jump to his defense online, quashing any notion that her husband's actions were anything other than harmless horseplay.
“It is incredible how some human beings are!! While we cross this pandemic, and we live moments of confinement, anguish, fear, loneliness, uncertainties of all kinds!" wrote Lopilato in Spanish on her Instagram account on Sunday, April 12.
"Every day we go out with my husband live to bring them a little joy, entertainment, and we have to bear to listen and see what malicious people publish who come out to talk about anything and without knowing anything about our family.”
Lopilato went on to accuse her husband's denouncers of cynically exploiting his notoriety to increase their own online presence.
"This person is doing harm and taking advantage of this pandemic where people are suffering, dying and locked up, to have fame and more followers. [These are] lies that I will not allow because [they] disrespect my family, so I ask you who have trusted me so much for years that you don’t allow it either. . . . The world needs more than ever ‘love, hope, values, unity and solidarity’ NOT these types of people.”
Lopilato and Bublé were married in March 2011 and have three children together. The model left the internet community in no doubt of her sincere love for her husband.
She wrote: “I want you to know that I have no doubts who my husband is and I would choose him a thousand times more!!"