Kelly Mi Li and Andrew Gray defend their relationship. Plus, Kevin Kreider and Kim Lee reveal if they’re giving love a shot.
Did your Bling Empire binge leave you wanting more? Are you ready to find out where these so-called "crazy, rich Asians" are now? Well, you're in the right place! ET video chatted with series stars Kelly Mi Li, Kim Lee, Kane Lim, Kevin Kreider, Anna Shay and Christine Chiu to get answers to some lingering season 1 relationship questions, from new romances to having kids and beyond. Read on to find out where the cast stands today, and click here in case you missed our first round-up, which dives deep into the penis pump saga, Anna and Christine’s game of social chess, the stars' hopes for season 2 and much, much more!
Yes, Kelly and Andrew Are Back Together
Season 1 ends with Kelly leaving Cherie and Jessey's 100 Day party for their son, Jevan, and arriving at ex-boyfriend Andrew's house in full glam. A shirtless Drew pulls Kelly inside, they embrace and the episode fades to the credits. Cut to January 2021, and the couple is officially back together -- and have been since before pandemic-related lockdown orders went into effect in Los Angeles back in March 2020 (the show was filmed in 2019, and Kelly says they took about five months off from their relationship before getting back together).
"We're working things out," Kelly tells ET. "We're probably in a better place than we’ve ever been in our relationship. Throughout our six years of ups and downs, I think we’re in the best place we’ve ever been, just understanding each other better. Continue to go to therapy, continue to work things out, ‘cause at the end of the day, we know that true love is hard to find and the love we have for each other is unconditional."
Kelly lied to her castmates at the tail end of Bling Empire's freshman run, denying that she was considering getting back together with the Power Rangers actor. Kelly says she was just trying to save her friends from getting swept up into the whirlwind that is her personal life.
"Me and Andrew's relationship is so up and down, we’ve been on a roller coaster, and for my friends, I think, like, [I’m] a little bit embarrassed in a sense, where I hate to have them go on this roller coaster with me," she says. "It's so emotional all the time. So, I feel a little guilty. I’m like, I don’t want them to go on this roller coaster, in case it’s another dip, in case it’s another drop. At the end of the day, sometimes I’m not even ready for the drop, you know? So, I don’t hate to get my friends on this roller coaster with me."
"I don't think she was trying to protect anyone," Kane says. "We’re tired of it. … As a friend, I’m tired of hearing about them getting back [together]."
"My God! Where do you want me to start on that one?" Anna adds, offering her two cents. "I just felt the way he was talking to her and the way he would treat her, she would put her pride aside. I wanted to shake her. 'Where’s your pride? Where’s your integrity? You f**ked up!' But I couldn’t [do that]."
"Right now, they seem pretty stable," Kane says of Kelly and Andrew. "I don’t know whether it’s because of COVID, if that’s keeping them together. Maybe season 2, we’ll see another breakup."
"I think for season 2, I’m gonna be a little more outspoken," Kelly declares. "Everybody was in my business, all the time, with me and Andrew. Sometimes I have to draw the line: This is my personal relationship, let me work it out and, I know you guys love me, I know you guys care for me, but let me take my space and my time to work it out."
Andrew Reacts to Viewer Criticism
Some viewers have labeled Andrew and Kelly's relationship as "toxic," taking major issue with how the actor speaks to his girlfriend. In episode 1, Andrew called Kelly, screaming over being left in a hotel room in Paris while she went out to shop with Anna. The phone call sent a chill down Anna’s spine and led viewers to flood Andrew’s social media comments with vitriol. The couple exclusively video chatted with ET’s Kevin Frazier to hash through the backlash. Andrew says he's OK with the way he came across on screen, because it contributed to the entertainment factor of the show and kept viewers invested in the story.
"I'm not saying it has been easy, it’s been rough," he admits. "[But] this has been one of the biggest blessings of my life, because it’s only going to better ours."
Andrew and Kelly say they have both been in therapy -- separately -- to work on their individual issues in order to create a stronger partnership.
"She's bettered me every day of my life," Andrew says. "She makes me want to be a better man. That’s pretty cliche, but it’s true. And I always admit to my faults, where I fall short and do the work. And I can’t wait for people to see that, if we get a season 2, I recommend it to every human being -- not just a man -- to seek help."
"It's definitely hard to relive a breakup and relive a very dark time in our life, but I think there’s no regret whatsoever," Kelly says (in an earlier interview) of exposing the good, bad and in between on TV.
"Everything happened for a reason," she continues. "I think, also, this show really helped bring all of our problems that we’ve been kind of avoiding dealing with to the front, right? So, we were able to grow a lot, actually, through this process. For sure, for me personally, I discovered -- about my issues -- a lot more, and then a lot of things that linked back to my childhood. As hard as it is to watch, I’m just really happy we got it on camera. I’m happy to be able to share to the world, and hopefully that’s gonna inspire couples that are maybe working through difficult times, as well."
See more from the couple in ET’s exclusive, emotional interview, airing this week. Check your local listings.
Are Kim and Kevin Giving Love a Shot?
While Kelly ran off to see Andrew in the finale, Kevin and Kim were back at the 100 Day party getting flirty.
"I'm so sorry for always picking on you, and I think you’re a great person, and I think we got great… what is this?" the DJ asks the model, to which he replies, "Vibes."
"Stop looking at me like you wanna kiss me and s**t!" he then tells Kim.
"I look at you?!" she fires back. "I think it’s the other way around over here!"
"In like the last moment we had together at that party, I felt a spark," Kevin admits to ET. "But I was like, hey… is this because we’re in the moment? This feels wrong. Like, she hated me, I hated her."
"Kevin and I have such a weird relationship, but we get along at the same time," Kim says. "He's a very nice guy. On the show, I think a lot of people might think, like, ‘Oh, why is she so mean to him?’ It’s just -- you ever have a friend that you can just say whatever to and they just kinda put up with it? Well, Kevin is that friend to me. And I love seeing him get mad sometimes, ‘cause it’s just… exciting. But I mean no harm!"
The short answer to the big question though is, no, Kevin and Kim aren’t dating… at least not yet.
"I'm still deciding," Kim confesses. "He’s been sliding in my DMs and stuff. I don’t know. We’re just gonna have to see."
"She’s a friend now, and I really care about her," Kevin shares. "I don’t want to just do it because she’s feeling vulnerable and there’s a spark. I wanna do it because there’s something real."
Kim says she is "manifesting" love in her life, but she’s not sure Kevin will be the right fit, noting she knows “too much about his dating life.” However, Anna -- who originally encouraged Kevin to go after Kelly while she was off with Andrew -- thinks it just might work.
"It could be fun to watch, but it could be, also, a mistake," she declares. "On the other hand, it could be the right match. They both want something for themselves, just hopefully they’ll do it together."
Has Kevin Tracked Down His Birth Parents?
Kevin got to know more about his identity in season 1, all in hopes of tracking down the people who gave him up for adoption decades ago. He hit a dead end when the South Korean adoption agency refused to release his biological parents’ names, but he’s holding out hope that the platform of Bling Empire and Netflix might bring him the closure he wants.
“I really hope people watch this in Korea and go, ‘Oh my god, I think I actually know that person!’ Or maybe my birth parents reach out,” he says. “I just don’t want everybody to claim to be my birth parents now. Like, that would be disheartening. Like, you look like you could I can date you, you're only 30, there's no way you’re my birth mom. But it's just… I hope that actually comes out of people finding that because the word’s out there now, it's the ultimate search now.”
Should the show get a second season, Kevin would want to travel to South Korea to find more answers.
Christine Chiu and Baby No. 2
Baby G remains an only child for now, and maybe forever. Christine and her husband, Dr. Gabriel Chiu, discussed the possibility of giving their now-2-year-old son a sibling in season 1, but those conversations have since stalled. The couple’s two frozen embryos, named London and Margeau ("like 'chateau,' not Robbie"), remain on ice.
"I like to fight my battles wisely, so currently I am in a battle of whether or not to rescue some llamas," Christine quips. "We would love to add a few llamas to our family. We just adopted a fish, and we are taking Purple the fish very seriously, and then we will move onto llamas and see what the future holds."
Rather than new kiddos, Christine is keeping the focus on the one she has and his future. Pre-school admission is top of mind.
"Now that we are on a global reality TV show, I think I may have ruined my son's chances at a very prestigious preschool," she laments.
It was a journey to bring Baby G (whose real name is Gabriel Chiu, III) into the world, with Christine candidly confessing on the show that she took the blame for her and Dr. Chiu's fertility issues, when it was really an undiagnosed issue of her husband's that held up the process for more than a decade. The pair’s inability to conceive put Christine in a tough places with her in-laws, descendants of the Song Dynasty who put pressure on her to bring a male heir into the world.
"My husband had a medical condition that could have been prevented, I think when he was younger, but it was not," she shares, without revealing too many details. “I think there is a part of guilt from my mother in law. Unfortunately, that medical condition led to him not being able to be fertile and he did undergo several surgeries himself.”
Then, Christine had a complicated pregnancy with Baby G and says she cannot carry another child. If the Chius do ever expand their family, it would likely be with the help of a surrogate.
"Every day when I look at Baby G, everything else pauses, because I look at something that was so impossible," she says. "I've had so many doctors -- the world's leading doctors -- tell me that you need to come to terms with the fact that you guys will just never be parents, you will never have a child. Just put that aside, don't even think about it anymore, and I can't tell you for how many years that just cut me apart, whether the struggle was on my husband’s side or mine. But you know, miracles do happen and this is why we love this baby so much, because not only is he our child, but when we look at him, we see the possibility of great things that can occur if you just believe and are persistent."
"Cheers to Daddy Issues!"
Christine delivered the above phrase with a clink of glasses while chatting with co-stars Kane Lim and Jaime Xie about their relationships with their parents. Just before the cheers, Christine revealed she had not spoken to her own father since college, after a mysterious falling out that left her cut off financially. In the season finale, Christine opened up about her strained relationship to Kim, who encouraged her to reach out and make amends. Kim told Christine to learn from her mistake, seeing as she had just learned that her own father was dead, after attempting to track him down to reconnect.
"Very unfortunately, my mother passed away in August and it was a shock and a surprise to us all," Christine reveals. "I had to really grow up very quickly. You think in your mid-30s you are really a grown adult, and you don't realize how much you need your parents until you had lost one of them -- or both of them -- and in the... I don't want to call it a mess, but in the process of dealing with my mother’s passing, I really felt the urge and the need to reach out to my father, and ironically he has been the one who has helped me most through the hardships of my mother’s passing and losing a parent."
Christine says rebuilding her relationship with her dad has been a silver lining to an otherwise dark time.
"It is a beautiful thing," she says. "He was able to FaceTime with Baby G -- and he's never met Baby G before -- and in his very traditional, Chinese demeanor you can tell that he was very proud, and that is all I could ever want is for him to be proud of me and what we have accomplished as a family."
"One of the reasons we were really intrigued by [the show] is because it really explores these family dynamics in a unique way that we haven't seen on television," Christine adds. "It is very real and raw, and once people can move past the glitz and the glamour, and the race cars and the high jewelry, they can really see a group of people who are struggling and triumphing in a very relatable manor."
That said, Christine isn't interested in her father or her in-laws binging Bling Empire.
"Reality television is not something I think either sets of parents or families necessarily condone," she says.
Well, if you’re not Christine’s extended family, you can binge/re-binge Bling Empire any time on Netflix. All eight episodes of season 1 are now streaming.
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