Just a day ago, “Grayce Tan” became a top search term. And look at all that preaching!
Ah, Singapore – that gleaming city-state where efficiency reigns supreme, family values are etched into every HDB corridor and success stories are polished brighter than a new condo facade.
But every now and then, somebody forgets to button or zip, revealing the messy but genuine human underbelly that no amount of digital marketing can airbrush away. Enter the latest drama from PropertyLimBrothers (PLB), where co-founder Melvin Lim and his rising-star VP Grayce Tan have turned a real estate empire into a soap opera script. Suddenly before you can read out the Ten Commandments, social media is abuzz with the deafening gallop of moral high horses.
By right, something as personal as an affair should not attract so much public attention. Sadly, when prominent or successful members of society are involved, the affair becomes a mirror to our society’s obsessions with image, ambition and the thin line between professional hustle and personal hypocrisy. We have every right to keep our personal matters private, but misleading facades and hypocrisy deserve to be exposed. Nevertheless, I’m more disgusted with the marauding moralists.
So what’s the story? Let me paint the picture for you, the way I’d recount it over kopi at a place that accepts CDC vouchers. Imagine this: It’s late January 2026, and the year has barely kicked off when whispers erupt on Reddit’s r/SingaporeInfluencers. A subreddit that’s basically a digital kopitiam for spilling tea on local celebs and influencers – 46,000 members strong, mind you, all bonding over snark and screenshots.
The post drops like a bombshell: allegations of an extramarital fling between Melvin Lim, the charismatic face of PLB’s viral showflat tours and Grayce Tan, the influencer-turned-VP who’s climbed the ranks faster than property prices in Orchard.
Both Grayce Tan and her boss are married, both with families they flaunt on social media like badges of virtue. Lim, with his wife and four kids, has been positioning himself as the ultimate family man – even dabbling in no-quite-Kong-Hee Christian preaching on blogs back in the day. Grayce Tan, with her @babygrayce Instagram feed, is full of wedding bliss and lifestyle inspo, racking up 190,000 followers. It’s the kind of setup that screams “perfect on paper” – until they forget to zip or button.
The “evidence,” as these things go in the age of viral vigilantism, starts piling up quicker than traffic on the CTE during rush hour. First, those anonymous Glassdoor reviews from 2025 – you know, the ones hinting at favouritism and “personal proximity to management” (intimacy in this case) dictating promotions. One from July complains about an employee being “overly touchy with female colleagues,” another from October questions why someone shoots from intern to VP in record time without the chops. Coincidence? Tan joined the company as an intern in 2022, rocketed to VP for the Strategy department – was it merit? Could be. Nowadays, record labels are only keen to sign up artists who already have a big social media following.
Maybe, but in hindsight, it’s the kind of foreshadowing that makes you wonder if the office grapevine was buzzing long before the public did. Then comes the real kicker: a six-minute video circulating on TikTok and Reddit, showing Melvin Lim and Grayce Tan emerging from a covered office door after what sounded suspiciously like an intense workout.
By 26 January, the screen collapsed. A leaked WhatsApp message, purportedly from Lim to PLB staff, admits to a “personal mistake” and announces both he and Grayce Tan were stepping down. Lim’s profile vanishes from the company website, leaving brother Adrian as the sole co-founder.
Grayce Tan as Arts Queen in 2016
Meanwhile, Grayce Tan’s Instagram went private, her bubbly posts hidden behind a wall of damage control. Media outlets like Mothership and MustShareNews jumped in, amplifying the frenzy, while forums like HardwareZone turn it into a circus of speculation. Comments range from the empathetic – “Think of the kids lah” – to the vicious, with body-shaming aimed at Tan (“How he choose her? So ugly one”) revealing the ugly undercurrents of our online culture. It’s classic Singapore: We love a good scandal, especially when it happens to successful people and if it lets us play moral judge from behind our screens. In a narrow-minded society like ours where the government takes the lead in promoting family values, talented men like the late Chua Lam bear the brunt of the angry aunties.
I respect Mr Chua. He was never a preacher like Melvin Lim. Netizens dug up his old blog posts, juxtaposing them with the affair rumours like a gotcha moment. It’s reminiscent of those televangelist scandals in the US, where the holier-than-thou fall hardest. And Grayce Tan? Her rapid rise and the discovery of the affair are taken as “proof” that she slept her way up regardless of how hard she had worked. Take the company for instance. PLB built its brand on slick videos – tens of thousands of views per tour – blending real estate with influencer vibes. Is that not merit? Imagine that just because of the affair, clients may avoid them, investors may hesitate and the company’s reputation takes a hit even though they may have never been dishonest in their business dealings. Can we, a country with one of the highest per capita GDP in the world make the distinction business and personal life? If you think Grayce Tan is bad, wait till you meet the lady below.
Above is my AI rendition of 20-year-old Chinese author Yi Shu 亦舒. Writing mostly essays and romance in the 1980s. Sister of famous science fiction author Ni Kuang and described by her teachers as touchy and emotional, Yi Shu was well-known for her promiscuity. However, that was not how HK society defined her. She started writing entertainment news at Ming Pao at the age of 17 and never looked back from a career in writing. At the age of 18, she defied her parents’ orders not to marry illustrator 蔡浩泉 and threw a wedding party without them. At 19, she gave birth to a baby boy whom she abandoned and divorced her husband. Then while writing screenplays, she got to TVB actress 郑佩佩. They became the best of friends until she met 郑佩佩’s boyfriend actor 岳华 and fell in love with him. She seduced him, 岳华 broke up with 郑佩佩 and married 亦舒.
Yi Shu faced intense public criticism. She proudly admitted that she seduced 岳华 and stole her best friend’s boyfriend. But soon, her frequent violent outbursts crossed the line with 岳华. She got divorced a second time at the age of 27. Yi Shu remained happily single, living the life of a party animal until she met a university professor at the age of 40. They got married and migrated to Canada. Could she have survived in Singapore? I don’t think so. The public would have been so judgmental and worked up that the government might have been forced to ban her books. The female characters were all complex, willful and impulsive like her. But no, not only did her promiscuity not weigh down on her ability to pen novels, it actually helped her create those memorable characters. Who cares whether they are good role models? Well, the moralists in Singapore do. CEO Melvin Lim, VP Grayce Tan have resigned! Whatever for? Does being horny and adulterous have anything to do with how well they can handle real estate transactions? Have they ever been guilty of fraud of dishonest in their profession? Alas, this is Singapore.
Neil Humphrey made a naughty remark: “How dare these people have extra-marital sex! We’re struggling to find the time just to have regular marital sex!”
I dislike fake people Jackie Chan who sail to wherever they smell the money. But the folks who preach and condemn his amorous ways may not be doing so because of their morality. It could also be because of their lack of opportunity. As someone replying to my comment on social media suggested, the loudest preachers and protesters could be incels (involuntarily celibate) or guys in Grayce Tan’s husband’s position. I’m not surprised it happened in the office. I know of it happening in places so weird that the perpetrators might be qualified to plead temporary insanity. Indeed, it can happen anywhere to almost anyone (even the “moralists” but not the pathetic incels). Those who preach and don’t commit are not necessarily more moral. They could just be lacking in opportunity. They are not Jackie Chan. They are not Jack Neo. For the rest of us watching the drama from the comfort of our homes? It’s a reminder that Instagramers are flawed and complex just like their followers. The truth behind the public eye is rarely as tidy as a showflat. What the moronic moralists bent on destroying the two of them should realise is that succumbing to temptation of the flesh is not an indication of dishonesty or even promiscuity. Guys can fantasise all they want. Grayce Tan may spurn them in real life.
Chan Joon Yee is a Singaporean writer and adventurer. Views are his own, drawn from a lifetime of observing the island’s quirks.