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Andrew Gray Returned To Bling Empire In Season 3 To Make Amends

Here’s why he left the Netflix series in the first place.

Andrew Gray in 'Bling Empire' Season 1, via Netflix's press site
Courtesy of Netflix

In the final moments of Bling Empire Season 2, there was an unexpected knock on the door of Anna Shay’s Beverly Hills estate. The surprise guest? Kelly Mi Li’s ex-boyfriend, Andrew Gray, who viewers hadn’t seen since the Netflix reality series’ first outing. That’s exactly where Season 3 picked up, as the former Power Rangers actor attempted to explain his year-long absence and apologized for his verbally abusive behavior toward Kelly that Anna witnessed during their trip to Paris.

After he told Anna that he’d spent the last year or so working on himself through therapy and other means, she invited him to a roller-skating party, but Kelly didn’t exactly welcome his return in the same way. After all, their volatile on-again, off-again relationship was a Season 1 centerpiece, and even the inaugural episode alone illustrated how much of an emotional roller coaster they were on. Kicking off with loving moments, the series premiere ended with Andrew screaming at Kelly over speakerphone — with Anna also listening — for letting him sleep in their Paris hotel room while they were out shopping.

Kelly and Andrew’s relationship continued to go through some major ups and downs, and though they even broke up at one point, by the Season 1 finale, a reconciliation seemed imminent. Indeed, after the season wrapped, Netflix dropped a Bling Empire cast “Where Are They Now?” video in January 2021, and in it, the pair revealed that they’d gotten back together following a six-month separation. Calling Andrew’s anger issues his “darkest secret,” Kelly hoped that they could “only go up” from there.

Courtesy of Netflix

The same month, Kelly penned an essay for Women’s Health, sharing that she and Andrew had been in therapy since filming wrapped in 2019, hoping to become their “best selves individually.” They seemed to be making progress, too. “We’re still taking it day by day, but I have to say it’s like night and day watching that version of him compared to now,” she wrote. “Andrew has put in so much work. I’m so proud of and inspired by him. . . . I know that next chapter will be really focusing on us together as a couple and building a family.”

Also in January 2021, Andrew accused Bling Empire’s producers of editing and manipulating footage to paint an inaccurate portrait of their romance. “To set the record straight, what was captured in the show doesn’t reflect our relationship at all,” he told E! News. “I don’t believe the audience . . . really saw anything other than the absolute worst part of a time, a short time, that was put on camera.”

Kelly, for her part, added, “There were definitely some things that were really difficult to watch. You know, but for me, I feel like…really proud how far we've come since filming."

When Bling Empire Season 2 premiered in May 2022, however, Kelly revealed that she and Andrew had broken up — and for good, this time. The duo had already announced their split a couple of months earlier in similar since-deleted Instagram statements. “Over the past 5 and half years, Andrew and I have shared some incredible times together. I have a tremendous amount of respect and love for him and will always cherish the memories we made,” Kelly wrote in March. “However, we have made the difficult decision to officially separate at this point in our lives. We are both so grateful to have experienced a relationship that allowed us to grow and learn so much.”

But their tense Season 3 reunion made clear that Kelly was still emotional about the breakup, despite her best efforts to move on from Andrew. After co-star Kim Lee predicted that she and Andrew would reignite their old flame, the rest of the cast was low-key worried about the potential reconciliation. In the end, though, Kelly finally met someone else — and now it’s unclear if and when Bling Empire viewers will see Andrew again.