Elaine Lui

Elaine "Lainey" Lui (, born September 26, 1973) is a Canadian television personality and reporter. She has a website called LaineyGossip, is an anchor on CTV's etalk, and was a co-host on CTV's daily talk series The Social.

Early life and education Lui was born and raised in Toronto. Her parents, Judy and Bernard, immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in 1970. They worked odd jobs, including washing dishes and cleaning hotel rooms. Eventually, her father found stable work as an accountant. When Lui was 6, her parents divorced and her mother returned to Hong Kong. Lui spent many summers in Hong Kong to visit her mother.

Career

After graduating from Western, she worked for Rogers Communications and trained employees to install Internet connections.

Lui participated in the 2015 edition of Canada Reads, where she advocated for Raziel Reid's novel When Everything Feels Like the Movies.

Lainey made her acting debut on Murdoch Mysteries, season 18, episode 12, as Gail, a gossip columnist, who attended the grand opening of the Royal Ontario Museum. She also appeared as herself hosting eTalk alongside Tyrone Edwards in the episode "Rose" of Crave's sports romance drama Heated Rivalry.

Hosting the Smut Soiree Lui hosts the Smut Soiree, an annual event at which she talks about the latest gossip in pop culture and Hollywood. The event was first held in 2005.

Personal life

Lui married Jacek Szenowicz when she was 28 years old. They now reside in Toronto with their dogs Barney and Elvis. Jacek helps to run LaineyGossip.com. Lui has stated that she and her husband do not wish to have children.

Controversy In June 2020, comments made by Lui on her website resurfaced, causing scandal, after Lui accused Jessica Mulroney of using her white privilege against lifestyle blogger Sasha Exeter, the niece of Lui's co-star at the time on The Social, Marci Ien. These included comments described as body-shaming, slut-shaming, homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, misogynistic and ageist. These comments sparked outrage and were widely discussed on social media. However, unlike Mulroney, Lui faced no disciplinary action and retained all of her jobs. In April 2021, Lui was quoted as saying, "For me, part of restorative justice is making contrition an ongoing process [...] I don’t ever plan to get to a point where I say, ‘I don’t want to talk about this anymore.’ I’ll talk about it as much as anyone wants me to talk about it. I don’t think an apology is a one-and-done thing [...] I’m trying to be much more aware of not benefitting but also taking responsibility — but not being praised for taking responsibility. It’s a very uncomfortable place to be.”

Writing

Awards