Dustin Nguyen left Hollywood and a stature many would kill for to return to his home country, Vietnam, in 2012. He had had a not-so-great time in the US with professional and personal problems.

The 21 Jump Street actor wanted to start over at a place he knew better. But he had no idea what would follow his move. He would, though, be pleasantly surprised.

Soon upon his return to Vietnam, he met his now wife, Bebe Pham, and started a family with her. His acting career did not do too badly, either.

Dustin Nguyen's Wife Helped Him Restart Properly

To understand how Nguyen's current wife helped him, we have to look at what happened in his life before 2012.

From 1987 to 1990, he was one of the main characters in 21 Jump Street alongside Johnny Depp. That set the tone for his success for a decade.

In 1999, he worked on VIP, but as his time on the show came to an end, his misery started.

On September 3, 2001, his then-wife, Angela Rockwood, got into a horrific accident that left her quadriplegic. That accident, which happened the same year they married, sent him to what he has described as his "rock bottom."

"I hit the bottom professionally, and personally I was pretty devastated with what was going on in my personal life," he said during his June 2022 interview with Today. He stopped acting and took on a warehouse job to support his former wife.

On Rockwood's suggestion, he gave acting another shot, but nothing panned out. After a decade of struggle, Nguyen and Rockwood divorced in 2012, and he moved to Vietnam permanently, or so he thought at the time.

Soon after arriving in his soil of origin, he met Pham. She was his second chance at love. He met her on the set of a movie they were co-starring in called Zero Tolerance on November 2, 2012.

"When Bebe and I met, it was just one of those things," he told People in 2015. "We just clicked."

Neither thought they would have two kids within two years, let alone date. But all of those things happened in quick succession — they got married that same year and welcomed their two daughters, Sky, on January 9, 2013, and Scarlett, in late 2014 or early 2015.

Their third daughter, whose name and birth date are yet unknown, made her Instagram debut alongside him on August 30, 2021. By then, she had already started to walk but was still young and using a stroller during family outings.

Dustin Nguyen's Approach to Career after Marriage

Nguyen always wanted to produce and direct films, telling stories that interested him. Going to Vietnam provided him with the perfect opportunity for that.

But, when he got married and had his children, the filmmaking aspect of things had to take a hit.

Nguyen with his wife, Bebe Pham, and his three children. (Photo: Dustin Nguyen/Instagram)

"Kids make you forget about yourself," he said of having children, saying it changed his life and career dynamics. When he gave that interview to People in 2015, his children were very young, and he and his wife decided to devote more time to them than anything else.

"Before you know it … you just miss all those wonderful first years where they're learning and everything," he said. "We made a vow to try not to miss a lot of that."

The actor, who now stars in Blood & Treasure, returned to the US with his family. Their return coincided with a bad time for the Asian community in the country.

Nguyen was so scared of the anti-Asian hate that ravaged the country during the pandemic he moved his family to Hawaii. He wanted to make sure his wife and children were safe when he was away working.