Singaporean star of Bling Empire dies after ski accident

Lin Pan, the famous jewelry designer from Singapore 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, in which he paid tribute to his 51-year-old mother as his “best friend and best mother.”

The accident occurred in Aspen, United States, on Christmas Eve.

Pan’s family did not reveal the direct cause of her death.

In a social media post on New Year’s Eve, Pan revealed that she fell while skiing at the top of a mountain and “got her face stuck in it.”

She was wearing a helmet, “it wasn’t too bad at the time, and I was able to skate to the bottom,” she said, adding that a ski patrol officer later verified she had a concussion and was cleared.

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

“In the blink of an eye… life can change,” she wrote in the post, which she accompanied with a photo of herself in bed with her head partially shaved. “We have a long road to recovery, but I am a survivor.”

Pan was born in Singapore and has worked in New York, London and Paris.

Her designs have been worn by pop stars Madonna, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and Billie Eilish, according to her website.

On Bling Empire New York in 2023, she was part of a group of Asian American socialites who “flaunt their wealth — and their fashions — while bringing the drama and living it up in New York City,” according to Netflix.

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

“She always had a smile on her face even when times were tough during her recovery process,” he said.

“She is a fighter to the end and is the strongest woman I know,” he said.