Desmond Tan Really, Really Does Not Want To Talk About His Wedding

Our call started off normally enough, with Desmond being his usual chatty self as we discussed his latest Mediacorp drama Home Again, in which he plays Yap Jian Kang, a man who is reunited with his family 25 years after being abducted and being forced to work as a child labourer in Thailand.

“I definitely needed to do a fair bit of preparation ‘cos this was a very emotional and intense role,” he shared. “At the age of eight, my character is taken from his family and sent somewhere far away to be a slave at a farm, so as you can imagine, there’s a mixture of fear and separation anxiety and stuff like that.”

Jian Kang is reunited with his family after his sister Ping An (played by Ya Hui) manages to find him on a DNA ancestry website, and the subject of DNA testing is brought up again when his actual identity comes under question.

Since DNA seems to be an important element in the show, we ask Desmond if he has ever done one of those DIY DNA test kits, where one can find out more about their ethnicity or health.

“I’ve thought of doing it before ‘cos one of my friends took the test many years ago, and he found out that he has some Middle Eastern heritage, so naturally I was also very curious about my own bloodline, but I’m just not very comfortable revealing my DNA to unknown companies at the moment,” he said. “The last thing I want is for my DNA to be planted at crime scenes!”

Desmond added that there was a time after NS when he contemplated going to China to track down exactly which province and village his ancestors were from, but the idea never came to pass.

His DNA isn’t the only thing he isn’t comfortable revealing.

We could still get away with asking if he encountered any issues or difficulties during his recent European getaway due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Des, the Omicron variant was first detected about a week before his departure, so there was “a lot of uncertainty” about whether he and his friends could still travel or not.

“And even if we could fly, anything could have happened while we were on board that 15-hour flight,” he said. “For example, all passengers might suddenly need to be quarantined when they land, so there were worries about whether we could successfully get into France.”

He continued: “Postponing the trip never crossed my mind ‘cos it would require a lot of coordination with the others, plus that was the only period I could travel ‘cos immediately after I got back to Singapore, I had to start work already, so it was either we push through or we cancel the entire trip altogether. We could only pray that things would go well.”

8 DAYS: So did you have a backup plan for your wedding if you didn’t get to go to France?

DESMOND TAN: I don’t wish to talk [about] anything about my wedding. Thank you.

Do you wanna share anything about how being married is like so far?

(Mumbles) I don’t think... (says something unintelligible) really changed yet.

When we spoke to you in August, you said you weren’t engaged but you actually proposed to your wife five years ago. How was it keeping your engagement a secret for so long?

I don’t think I wanna share anything personal here.

All right. Did you congratulate Rebecca Lim when she announced her engagement? (P/S: He once said that despite drifting apart, the former BFFs aren’t completely ignoring each other.)

Um… I don’t wish to talk about this as well.

So just to be sure, there’s nothing you would like to share about being married and all that?

(Hesitates) Um, not yet.

Okay, that’s fine. Congratulations again on getting married and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year.

To be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Desmond wanting to keep his private life ultra-private.

However, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t taken aback when the usually candid actor abruptly became so guarded and terse — he didn’t even acknowledge it when we congratulated him twice — especially since we were probing him about what’s undeniably a joyous occasion and not, say, a messy divorce, drink-driving charge, or infamous breach of pandemic regulations.

In any case, he immediately returned to his regular gabby self when we asked what he’s up to next, to which he replied: “Currently I’m working on a new project. I started my imaging yesterday and I’m not sure when I can release more info, but it will be quite exciting.”

Home Again premieres on January 18, 9pm on Ch 8.
It will also be available on demand for free on meWATCH from January 17.

Watch the first episode of Home Again below:

Photos: Mediacorp, Desmond Tan/Instagram