Mai Whelan is the winner of Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge. She is player number 287 who competed with Sam Lantz and Phill Cain for the hefty $4.56 million cash prize.
On her journey to become one of the finalists, she built several alliances and even tricked a few. However, Mai is known for her strong sense of right and wrong, loyalty and friendship.
Mai Whelan Relationship Status
When Mai was competing to win the cash prize in the reality show, her personal life made many people curious.
Even though she had opened up about her childhood and how she left Vietnam during the fall of Vietnam in 1975, she did not reveal anything about her relationship status.
There were many speculations made on Mai’s relationship status. While some believe that Mai has been keeping her married life private, some believe that she has never been married.
Due to the privacy in Mai Whelan’s personal life, it wasn't clear whether she was married or not. But after winning the show, Mai had many interviews where she talked about her Squid Game journey and her life behind the fame as a contestant.
Mai has revealed that it was her husband who introduced her to the original Squid Game show on Netflix. He was also the first person whom Mai called after she won the show. Mai was allowed to share the news of her win to one person by Netflix so she chose her husband.
Mai Whelan’s husband’s name is Jay Whelan. Although Mai was private about her married life in the past, her husband Jay is now often seen on her Instagram posts.
Earlier this year in August, she shared an Instagram reel with her husband where Mai said that her favorite thing about love is snuggling with her honey on a nice vacation.
Similarly, in July 2024, she shared some pictures and videos of her husband writing that he works just as she does behind the scenes.
After Mai won the show, she and her husband packed their bags and went to spend a week on a farm in Ohio with their dogs.
Mai Whelan Kids
Mai became a single mom after she became pregnant at the age of 19. She has opened up about her family and also how they cut her off.
She lived a very sheltered and strict life with her family so when she completed her school at the age of 18, she wanted to break out of that shelter.
Mai then decided to join the Navy. She was then bullied and eventually became pregnant when she was 19 years old.
Mai was just a teen when she was pregnant and when her family cut her off, she had no one by her side and she didn’t know anything about motherhood.
Mai now has two daughters and a granddaughter. Mai also has two dogs in her family.
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Mai Whelan Family
Despite all the privacy that Mai has maintained in her life, she has opened up about her early life and her near-death experience.
Mai was born in Vietnam but she migrated to the States with her family during the fall of Vietnam in 1975.
She recalled,
“I was born in Vietnam, and I left during the fall of Vietnam in 1975. I was eight years old. And I can remember that you know, going to the airfield where everybody, you know, all the refugees are laying down on the airfield. And being eight years old, I was, like, curious, so I had, you know, my head up, trying to see where’s the bombing coming from, or where the guns, you know, were shooting at.”
Mai continued,
““I just, a split second, I lift my head up. A soldier automatically, so quick, put the gun, you know, to my temple. And he was about to shoot me because, you know, he thought I was a threat. So my mother yanked me so hard to the ground. And in that split second, my life was, like, almost over. That is a moment where I would never, never forget. And that moment is like, you know, a driving moment for me to be strong.””
Mai Whelan hasn’t revealed the names of her parents. Likewise, it’s unclear whether she has any siblings or not.
Job And Net Worth
Mai Whelan has been working as an immigration adjudicator. According to Comparably, the salary of an immigration adjudicator in the United States is estimated to be around $57,158.
Mai’s net worth in 2024 is estimated to be in millions of dollars. She received the prize money worth $4.56 million after winning Squid Game: The Challenge.
After winning the show, Mai received several requests on Venmo and PayPal asking for money as they all knew her full name. But the day after the finale, Mai revealed that she hadn’t yet received the prize money because of which the ‘Venmo vultures’ left her alone.
Meanwhile, Mai was asked about how she be spending the cash prize to which she replied that she wanted to renovate her home and add a small boating dock. She even expressed her desire to give a portion of her money to charities and non-profits.
Mai is on Instagram with the username @whelanmai and on Facebook with the name Mai Whelan.
