Singaporean star of Netflix show Bling Empire passes away

Singaporean celebrity jewelery designer Lin Ban, who starred in the Netflix reality show Bling Empire, has died, a month after undergoing brain surgery following a skiing accident.

Her son Sebastian confirmed her death in an Instagram post on Wednesday, where he paid tribute to his 51-year-old mother as his “best friend and best mother”.

This accident happened in Aspen, America on Christmas Eve.

Ban’s family did not immediately reveal the cause of his death.

In a social media post on New Year’s Eve, Ban had revealed that she had fallen while skiing on the top of a mountain and left her ‘face disfigured’.

Because she was wearing a helmet, “it didn’t seem that bad at the time and I was able to ski all the way down,” she said, adding that a ski patrol officer later checked the injury and cleared it.

But he still had “a bit of a headache” and decided to go to hospital on the advice of a paramedic. She then discovered she had bleeding in the brain, and went for an emergency craniotomy.

“In the blink of an eye…life can change,” he wrote in the post, which also included a photo of him in bed with his head partially shaved. “There is a long road of recovery ahead but I am alive.”

Born in Singapore, Ban worked in New York, London and Paris.

According to their website, their designs have been worn by pop stars Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and Billie Eilish.

In Bling Empire New York in 2023, she was part of a group of Asian American socialites who “bring drama and flaunt their fortune and fashion while living in New York City”, according to Netflix.

In his tribute Sebastian Bunn said he wanted the world to know who his mother was as a person.

“He always had a smile on his face, even when times were tough during the recovery process,” she said.

“She’s a warrior to the end and she’s the strongest woman I know,” he said.