Meet the real life Crazy Rich Asians
WHEN YOU FIRST press play on reality offering Bling Empire – currently one of Netflix’s most-watched shows – you’re immediately reminded of another: Selling Sunset. There’s the glossy view of Rodeo Drive, the inane incidental music and the drone shots of huge Beverly Hills compounds. The difference is that the cast of Bling Empire, rather than chasing fame, had to be cajoled into sharing their lavish lives with viewers, says one of the show’s stars, Kelly Mi Li, who is also its executive producer.
‘The first person I got on-board was Kane [Lim, whose family is in shipping and oil], but it did take a while for his family to sign off, because they are so high-profile in Singapore, and you are expected to be very low-key at their level,’ she tells Grazia. ‘Once we got his parents’ blessing then everyone else slowly started coming on-board.’
Kelly says she got the idea for Bling Empire after reading Kevin Kwan’s novel Crazy Rich Asians. She then started persuading her real-life friendship group – Christine Chiu, model Kevin Kreider, DJ Kim Lee and iconic matriarch Anna Shay – to take part, and teamed up with reality TV legend Jeff Jenkins, who worked on
Keeping Up With The Kardashians for a decade. As well as all the usual extravagance, you also get unexpectedly touching human stories: Kevin is adopted and decides to trace his birth parents in Korea, Kim tracks down her father having never met him, and Kelly herself is struggling in a relationship some viewers have branded toxic with Andrew Gray, an actor. ‘I think we show a very rare and vulnerable perspective,’ says Kelly, 35. ‘We’re genuinely friends and I hope that shines through.’
The first episode sparked controversy, though, with scenes of Andrew yelling down the phone at a clearly frightened Kelly during her birthday trip to Paris. Having split on the show, viewers may be surprised to hear that Kelly and Andrew are now back together. The online debate about their relationship has been hard to live through. ‘It was definitely difficult to watch; we saw it together actually,’ says Kelly. ‘The Paris scenes were filmed over two years ago. I know the outcome of how much Drew and I grew from that and things like that never happened again afterwards. So it is hard that the camera caught one of our worst moments.’
Does she understand why so many viewers were triggered and concerned by Andrew’s behaviour? ‘Yes, but this is my story and we can’t run from our truth. We have to face it,’ says Kelly. ‘My relationship has definitely changed, from that moment. Can people change? Yes. Does it take hard work? Yes.’ She adds that she and Andrew have undergone hundreds of hours of couples therapy.
‘A lot of people are reaching out on social media, being protective of me and that’s really nice. But the response that Drew has had hasn’t been so nice,’ Kelly says. ‘Everyone has a story, and sometimes they have happy endings, sometimes they’re a little heartbreaking. I’m hoping mine is happy. I don’t regret sharing it on the show.’
Conversations are in motion about a second season, says Kelly, and she’s hoping we’ll get to see even more of Anna Shay. ‘It’s Anna’s world, we’re just living in it,’ she laughs. Post-covid, though, there’s no way the Bling Empire parties will look the same. ‘We love these big parties,’ says Kelly, ‘but we just hope we can bring entertainment to people’s homes and give them an escape from what’s going on in the world.’