Shawn Thia Thought His Fiancée Xenia Tan Was “Very Quiet And Snobbish” When They First Met… Then He Ended Up Falling For Her

First impressions are a funny thing. For Sunny Side Up and Streamers Go Live star Shawn Thia, 26, when he first met his now-fiancée, Xenia Tan, 28, in 2019, he “didn't like her at first”.

The duo first crossed paths on set, when they were cast opposite each other in a short film that was part of Mediacorp’s Fresh Takes! series. [Fun fact: Xenia and Shawn now play relatives in Sunny Side Up. She stars as Pei Ling, an overbearing Tiger Mum who is married to the cousin of Shawn's spoiled entitled Damien.] 

“Wah, this girl, very quiet, very snobbish,” Shawn recounted to 8days.sg. But of course, this impression didn’t last. After all, just three years later, Shawn and Xenia are now happily engaged.

In fact, Shawn was the one who fell in love first.

Shawn, who confessed that he’s not much of a social media person, revealed that he didn’t know who Xenia was at first, and that all he knew was that she “must be famous” 'cos everyone on-set seemed to know her.

FYI: Xenia got her start as an online personality with local media outlet TheSmartLocal in 2017, amassing a strong following, before transitioning to acting.

“I didn’t want to talk to her much 'cos I felt like we didn’t have much in common,” Shawn recalled. However, one year later, Shawn and Xenia were reunited for dystopian drama The Algorithm, and that was when sparks flew.

"We became friends first, and hung out a lot. Then, after The Algorithm ended, we slowly started investing more time and effort into our friendship, which eventually grew to a relationship,” he said.

“Honestly, I liked her first,” he said, adding: “I made the first move. I was just very interested in this person, and spending time with her made me very happy.”

So… what’s next for the couple, after getting engaged?

Shawn confessed that prior to popping the question, they never actually talked about getting married, but he knew that Xenia was ready to take the next step.

“When we first got together, I just knew that… Okay, this is very cliche, but I just knew that this person is good for me. [When] I look at her, I… I just know it's right. Going into the relationship, I was already looking at how we can spend the rest of our lives together. It was quite premature, to be honest, but I felt like I was just very comfortable doing it,” he added.

He also shared that before the proposal, he’d already gotten the blessings of Xenia’s parents.

But for now, work comes first. Shawn shared that both their schedules are crazy packed for the rest of the year.

"I think to make it easier, we might just fix a date the next year or the year after, find a wedding planner, then we just [remain] hands-off. I think that would be the best option,” he said.

The couple are currently living together in a rented HDB flat, and are looking to either buy a resale flat, or a condominium unit.

“But I hope [we won’t have to go for the condo option] 'cos it’s very expensive,” Shawn laughed.

8DAYS.SG: You mentioned that you "just knew” that the time was right to propose to Xenia. How would you describe your relationship?

SHAWN THIA: Xenia’s not… not the girl that a lot of people think she is. She’s really loveable and her personality is very straight-forward. When she’s unhappy, she’ll just tell you straight. And I don’t have to play the guessing game, which helps a lot.

Sometimes, work goes on for up to 16 hours, and I just know that when I return home, I’m coming back to someone who is excited to see me, excited to run to me, give me a hug, and ask me if I wanna eat supper. Which is why I've gained so much weight (laughs). Yeah, it's been good lah, it's been very good.

You guys kept your relationship a secret until you were engaged. Was there any reason for that?

The reason behind that? There were [multiple reasons]…

Let me think ah. When we entered into a relationship, we never actually confirmed it.

It was more of an 'unofficially together, unofficial official’ kinda thing.

But another reason was that I didn't want to have anything premature going out. I felt like if I were to announce that I'm dating someone, it’s like… Do people really want to know that?

You’d be surprised at how many people are interested in things like that.

Okay, maybe… I don't know. But to me, I want to play it safe.

I know that I want to build a future with someone and if I have to be accountable to the viewers that watch us, then I will do it when things are more confirmed.

And I feel [being engaged] is when things are more confirmed, you know. But if we’re dating, then it’s better to be private. And I enjoy that privacy a lot.

So honestly, it took a while for me to kind of like psych myself up to announce our engagement.

There’s also a very old-fashioned mindset, that a lot of [management] agencies have, that I sort of picked up along the way.

It’s like 'cos I’m a young artiste, I shouldn’t tell people that I’m attached as I might lose fans.

But my mindset is that the people who like watching me, will just watch me. I don't need them to be a die-hard fan. If they stop supporting me 'cos I’m attached, then I'd rather you all don't like me.

Yeah, that kind of mindset, where fans stop supporting someone ‘cos of their relationship status, isn’t very healthy.

Yeah. Like I said, I want people to know me for my craft. If you like me 'cos you think that oh, I’m good-looking and single, and that we might have a chance together, then I feel like that’s doing a bit of a disfavour to the effort I put in [as an actor].

So now that your relationship is public, has anything changed? Do you feel like there are more eyes on you?

I think more eyeballs for sure. I'm going to be very honest 'cos I'm very low-key. On social media I'm actually very quiet. But Xenia's quite known on social media, YouTube and everything. And that's where a lot of the younger audience are.

So... now that we're engaged right, it’s very random, but like out on the streets, I’ll get stopped and they'll go like 'Eh congrats!' Then I'm like 'Thank you! But for what ah?'

And they'll be like, 'You're Shawn right? Congrats on your engagement with Xenia’.

There's more of that, for sure.

Catch Shawn and Xenia in Sunny Side Up on meWATCH here. You can also catch Shawn on Mediacorp's reality competition show, Streamers Go Live here on meWATCH. The latest episode is embedded below.

Photos: Shawn Thia/Instagram, Xenia Tan/Instagram