Andie Chen and Kate Pang are married — and pregnant

By the time you read this, Kate Pang and Andie Chen will have plighted their troth to each other at the Registry Of Marriages.

You’re scratching your head, thinking: “Did I miss the bit where they were going out?” Yes, you did. We all did.

Pang, 30, and Chen, 28, dated secretly for just over a year. And yesterday, they took their relationship to the next level and solemnised their marriage before hosting an intimate dinner for their families.

So why bother telling now? Well, the reason they are going public with their relationship is that they are expecting a baby. Pang is 10 weeks pregnant.

The couple broke the news to us over coffee and quinoa at Common Man Coffee Roasters last Thursday, saying they wanted to share their joy openly.

“There’s no question that people are going to immediately say, ‘This is a shotgun marriage,” said Chen, who returned for the wedding from Taiwan, where he is currently based. “But, basically, we are hoping that we can just let them know — for the people who actually care — to look deeper; that this is a very happy thing for us. We want to be surrounded by blessings, instead of secretively trying to hide things and being uncomfortable.”

So, never mind the previous cloak-and-dagger romance and the staunch denials. The couple now wants to do right by their child.

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

Chen and Pang first met on the set of the MediaCorp TV Ch 8 blockbuster Joys Of Life early last year, where they immediately felt the opposite of attraction for each other. “He’s very caustic and so am I, so we made fun of each other,” said Pang.

It was when they acted as lovers in Break Free later that year in Malaysia that things began to change.

“There were only a few of us actors, so I guess we talked more and shared our problems. That’s when we found we have similar habits and personalities,” Pang added. “I realised he wasn’t the person I had thought he was. Andie gives the impression that he is a bad boy but, really, he is very down-to-earth and, I feel, very sincere.”

The couple bonded because they were “both quite weird” in their own way.

“We both have very non-traditional mindsets,” Chen said. “More than infatuated love, it’s a sense of overwhelming ease. It’s like, ‘Yeah, I can do this for the rest of my life.’ Once that realisation came to me, I talked to her about it and we both decided that we wanted to be life partners.”

“I used to think I wouldn’t mind remaining single and I was also fine with the idea of being a single mother,” Pang said, adding that her past relationships had made her insecure about dating. “I am a person who gives up easily. When we quarrel, my insecurity makes me want to give up. But he knows how to win me over and win my trust. I felt it was possible to rebuild my confidence in romantic relationships.”

Although marriage was on the cards six months ago, they put it off because the procedure seemed “too much of a hassle”, Pang said.

“We actually went online to check what we’d have to do to get married. By the time we reached page three, we were like, ‘Okay. We’re not going to do this,’” Chen said. “But now, with the baby, we’re talking about Medisave and educational fees. I have to do it for the kid. (Kate) is a public figure and as a husband, it’s my duty to make sure she doesn’t have people talking about her, regardless of what her mindset is.”

Earlier, the couple had discussed having children with Pang’s age in mind. “I like kids and I often half-joked, ‘Let’s have a baby, because I’m getting on in years,’” said Pang.

“We both don’t believe we have to get married to have kids or have a family,” added Chen. “We decided to let nature run its course. We are very blessed, but also it means it came as a bit of a surprise — so quickly.”

AND BABY MAKES THREE

Pang first suspected she was pregnant late last month after she experienced some spotting while working out. A home pregnancy test later confirmed her suspicions. She broke the news to her family in Taiwan. “I told my dad, ‘I’m pregnant.’ He said, ‘Do you plan on getting married?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Oh. When? Let me know and I’ll go over.’ My dad’s like that. I sent my sister a text message saying, ‘Do you still have that stroller I bought you when you had your baby?’ She said, ‘Yes. Why?’ I said, ‘Save it for me.’”

Her mother, though, had reservations. “My mother was a little worried because she didn’t know him very well, and she thinks actors are womanisers,” Pang explained. “She and my grandma are worried that he’ll change his mind and leave me because they’ve read lots of entertainment news about guys behaving badly. It’s not true, lah.”

Chen, who currently plays a police inspector in the Taiwanese drama Independent Heroes, concurred: “Our parents were a little bit worried. They were like, ‘Are you sure you’re going to have this kid at this point in time?’ But for me, there was no question about it.”

Pang plans to join Chen in Taiwan once she gets the okay to travel — not just because, as a Taiwanese citizen, it will be less expensive for her to give birth there. “I feel I need someone by my side because, you know, expectant mothers can be emotional, and I need someone to take it out on,” she joked.

This, of course, means that the 2012 Star Awards Best Newcomer winner will have to put her promising career on hold. “There are projects I’ll have to drop, like the drama I was supposed to do next year. I’m a little sad about that, but it’s okay because, during this period, I can take up some courses — and decide what our plans are for after the child is born.

“We might stay in Taiwan because there’s no one (in Singapore) who can help out. But I also feel that my work here is very important.”

“We are discussing it,” said Chen. “I don’t believe that a family should be separated, so we have to somehow find a way to work this out. It just so happens that I’m at a very unstable stage of my career. It’s difficult to make any decision. One day I’m jobless, one day I’m on a hit series. You just don’t know.

“I never thought that I’d be married at 28. I never thought that I’d be a father at 28. But I don’t believe it can feel any more right than this.”

For the full interview, visit todayonline.com/blogs/stargazing