‘We needed to have a future after divorce’: NOC founder Ryan Tan opens up on public split from Sylvia Chan

Two years on after publicly announcing his divorce, Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) founder Ryan Tan came out to shed more light on what transpired in a podcast released on Tuesday (Sept 27).

The 34-year-old, who now runs his own YouTube channel Get Lost, announced his divorce from Sylvia Chan in a YouTube video posted in May 2020. The pair were divorced in March that year.

Looking back at how things went down between them, Tan shared on the latest episode of The Daily Ketchup Podcast that their then business was “95 percent” of why they chose to go their separate ways.

Tan revealed that he and ex-wife Chan had initially planned to keep their divorce private until problems arose when they started dating others, as people would ask them: “Huh, I thought you’re married?”

“And then it’s like, when is it gonna end? We’d always have this obstacle, [so] we decided that [making the divorce video] was the best course of action.”

Responding to some who had alleged that the video was “scripted”, Tan clarified that only the questions posed to them off-camera were prepared in advance.

He also revealed that local influencer Dee Kosh, a close friend of the couple, was the one behind the camera.

“We need[ed] to have a future after the divorce, and people don’t know that we are divorced ’cause we’re such a public couple.”

Shortly after the video was released, Tan said netizens were “vindictive” towards Chan as she did not appear emotional during the video. However, Tan said that his ex-wife shed tears after the cameras were cut.

Spillover into work

Because of the traction from their divorce video, work at NOC became even more hectic, Tan said.

“It started to get very stressful, a lot of jobs [were] coming in, everything slipped back to the old days…The core problem was not resolved — I’m damn burnt out, and the staff are suffering.”

Tan said he tried to sound the issue out to Chan, whom he says has a much higher threshold when it comes to dealing with work stress.

“Her logic [is that] if she can do it, anyone can do it. But she is very strong and powerful, and not a lot of people can be that standard.

“I think the employees couldn’t keep up with [her], and they were stressed.”

Chan’s strength was also apparent in their private life, as Tan revealed that he “didn’t see her cry a lot” during their decade-long union.

In October last year, NOC was plagued with allegations claiming that it had a toxic work culture and that it mistreated employees.

Various audio recordings and conversation snippers between Chan and employees began to surface online, posted by an account named Sgcickenrice.

Chan responded to the accusations through an Instagram post then, saying that it was “never [her] intention to upset anyone”, and promising to “do better”.

The account was later revealed to be run by Brandon Mah, a close friend of former NOC talent Nicole Liel.

Chan eventually told her side of the story in a two-hour long interview with local influencer Xiaxue, where she claimed that Tan was unfaithful to her while they were married.

In late October, Tan posted a ten-page statement addressing some of the claims made against him. He emphasised that he wanted a “clean break”, and would leave the “important issues” for the authorities to investigate.

Not on talking terms

Tan said in the podcast that his legal woes are still ongoing, although he hopes that they’ll come to an end soon.

In July this year, NOC, now run by Chan, took Ryan’s video production firm, Reno King to court over employment issues.

Reno King was previously under NOC, but was incorporated into a separate company after Tan and Chan split.

Earlier this month, NOC also removed all of the videos on their YouTube channel, announcing that their Food King brand has “officially shut down”.

As of now, Tan says that he’s not on talking terms with Chan, and prefers to go through their lawyers.

“I think it’s better with the lawyers because words can be misconstrued…we don’t that. Let the lawyers legalise it and objectively speak for us, because there will be heated emotions.”