MS Features: Simonboy and wife reveal the battle viewers don’t see
Sometimes, when the noise gets too loud, content creator Simon Khung, 38, otherwise known as his online alias Simonboy, sits with a simple, haunting question:
“Why am I doing all this?”
Image by MS News.
The thought comes to him on heavy evenings, usually after another wave of online backlash.
“When you are doing something good, and you get negative comments or even backlash, it does make one have self-doubt,” he told MS News.
This is when he thinks: “You can save all the trouble for yourself. You don’t need to go through all these things.”
Yet he shows up again the next morning — filming, sharing, encouraging — because he believes the work matters.
“At the end of the day, there’s always a purpose in doing something,” he said.
“I think that I still need to do what I need to do now.”
Humble beginnings as a food delivery driver
Looking back on his rough beginnings, Simon candidly shared that the only job he could do was food delivery.
He borrowed S$1,000 from his mother to buy a bicycle, and rode through long shifts under the heat.
But Facebook Live was trending then, and he wondered if his story — the raw, unpolished parts — might reach someone.
Without a camera crew or a tidy studio, Simon still decided to take the plunge, and the results were far beyond what he expected.
Image by MS News.
“My first viral video, I got about 500 comments… about 95% was all very positive,” he said.
Those messages became his anchor.
Source: @simonboyyyyyyy on TikTok
“When I have struggles and temptations, I always remember all these comments,” he said.
“I don’t want to fail the 400 over people.”
‘Living in the darkness’
Before his career as a content creator, Simon lived differently.
“Back then, when I was committing crimes, I was really living in the darkness,” he said.
Sixteen years of drug abuse, street fights, and prison sentences had shaped an aimless, restless life.
Source: @simonboyyyyyyy on TikTok
Telling his story online was, in a sense, an act of cleansing. A declaration that he had nothing left to hide.
“I’m not afraid because I am not in the dark anymore,” he declared.
“I’m not proud of what I’ve done in the past, but I shouldn’t be ashamed of the past. Everything is a learning lesson.”
Source: @simonboyyyyyyy on TikTok
Chloe rarely cries — but talking about the hate broke her
His wife, Chloe Eong, remembers the man she first met — a Grab delivery rider with a loud laugh and a strange sincerity that struck her.
“He is a very real person,” she said. “He was on the same frequency. He respected even the simplest things, like food.”
She never imagined people would ask him for photos one day. She never chased his content, never read the comments, and never tried to decode his fame.
Image by MS News.
“To me he is still the same,” she told MS News with a laugh. “Before and after fame, no difference!”
But this year, she noticed something shifting in him — a quietness, and a heaviness he tried to hide.
So, she did something she had avoided for years: she went online and searched his name.
What she found cut deep.
“I read the comments, and it really hurt.”
Image by MS News.
Her eyes reddened when she spoke about what happened during her pregnancy.
“It was hard, especially during my pregnancy. News came out then, and a lot of netizens messaged me,” she said. “So I needed to digest it myself.”
Tears welled up in her eyes in the interview, and she steadied herself before she said, “It affects me because he is affected.”
For a couple who built a reputation on courage and humour, this moment revealed something more fragile — the real cost of being visible.
Image by MS News.
Still, Chloe steadies him.
Just recently, she texted him a simple line, “I always believe in you,” Simon told MS News.
He remembers that message like a lifeline.
Why Simonboy refuses to let online haters stop him
Simon insisted that he is no superhero.
“I’m also a human,” he said. “Do I get affected? Obviously, everyone gets affected.”
Some comments sting, and some linger longer than they should.
But he has learnt to “really train and really ignore”.
The media circle offers support, but Chloe is the one who brings him back to ground.
“She’s the only one who can be very direct with me,” he said, smiling.
And when people ask why he continues sharing his life despite the scrutiny, his answer is simple and steady.
“I’m an ex-convict. I was an ex-drug user. Putting myself out there, I want to encourage all these people that our lives can have a meaning too.”
A life rebuilt, slowly and painfully
He remembers the old routine with uncomfortable clarity — waking up, finding money for the next fix, cycling through anger, sadness, numbness.
“It was very meaningless,” he said.
Source: @simonboyyyyyyy on TikTok
But somewhere deep down, even when going through addiction and crime cycles, he knew that life could be more.
I always knew that life has so much more than just destroying your own life.
He told MS News that he knew he needed to get help and checked himself into a halfway house.
Halfway houses rebuilt him piece by piece. Faith steadied him. Fatherhood grounded him.
“I want to find meaning and purpose in my life,” he said.
“Today I’m able to do what I do because I have purpose. I’m very blessed.”
Even now, with followers, Internet fame and “achievement”, he refuses to cling to it too tightly.
“If one day we lose all of it… are you okay with it?” he once asked Chloe.
She said yes.
“Then I’m okay,” he told her. “We can just raise our kid up and have a normal life.”
Source: @onlynoah on Instagram
Why he keeps showing up online anyway
For him, fame is not the prize — responsibility is.
“If I stop doing this just because of worrying about negative comments, it will be a waste,” said Simon.
He sees every video he puts out there as a reminder to himself, and a signal to others still trapped where he once was.
“Many people share the same background as me,” he said.
“By putting myself out there, I want to encourage all these people that our lives can have reconciliation,” he said. “With our kids, our family, and things like that.”
“That’s why I never stopped doing this.”
Behind the Internet comedian and personality was a man who showed quiet strength, just wanting to be better and help others to do the same.
Image by MS News.
Hate comes and goes. Support rises and falls.
But one conviction keeps him steady, even on the hardest days, “I want to put everything in the past.”
“I’m trying to be better each day.”
Also read: S’pore influencer Simonboy & wife welcome baby boy, 5 years after the loss of his daughter
S’pore influencer Simonboy & wife welcome baby boy, 5 years after the loss of his daughter
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Featured image by MS News.
