Lee Hye-young: “I Held an Apology Press Conference After My Divorce … They Said It Was a Hurdle I Had to Overcome to Return to Television”
Actress Kim Jung-eun revealed, 18 years later, why she had to publicly discuss her feelings after breaking up with Lee Seo-jin, even though she did not want to.
On the 20th, a video was posted on the YouTube channel “Hyeyoungineun Mot Mallyeo” featuring Kim Jung-eun as a guest. In it, she looked back on her past activities in the entertainment industry with her close friend, Lee Hye-young.
Lee Hye-young mentioned the SBS music program “Kim Jung-eun’s Chocolate,” which Kim Jung-eun hosted. “You were so beautiful back then, and I became a fan,” she said. “But when I suddenly saw you talking about a breakup on the show, I thought, ‘This is cool. Are you bringing the Hollywood way to South Korea?'”
Kim Jung-eun then revealed that publicly discussing her feelings about the breakup at the time had not been her choice.
Kim Jung-eun recalled, “I actually didn’t want to mention it. So many reporters were waiting outside, and not making a statement would have created an even more difficult situation.”
Kim Jung-eun and Lee Seo-jin met through the 2006 SBS drama “Lover” and later became a real-life couple. They continued dating publicly before breaking up in 2008.
At the time, Kim Jung-eun personally shared her feelings about the breakup with Lee Seo-jin on the set of “Kim Jung-eun’s Chocolate,” which she hosted. However, her account of the situation 18 years later was quite different from a voluntary confession.
Lee Hye-young, who had been listening beside her, recalled the atmosphere at the time. “Even though we weren’t married and had only dated briefly before breaking up, you still made a public statement,” she said. She then joked, “Idols these days don’t need to do that, do they? We paved the way for all of them.”
Lee Hye-young had a similar experience. After divorcing Lee Sang-min, she had to hold an apology press conference in front of hundreds of reporters in order to return to television.
Lee Hye-young revealed, “I got divorced for personal reasons and was going to appear on ‘Heroine 6’ again when the head of our entertainment division told me, ‘Since it’s a hurdle you’ll have to overcome once anyway, let’s apologize together while we’re all there.'” She added, “He told me to apologize and make a public statement.”
She said the press conference was also quite large. Lee Hye-young recalled, “I didn’t know there were so many reporters in South Korea. Around 300 to 400 people came.”
She explained why she had no choice but to attend the press conference: “The show could continue only if we did that. A television program is a promise to the public, and it was a program meant to bring people happiness and laughter, so that’s what I did.”
Kim Jung-eun also empathized with the pressure celebrities faced in those days. She said she had felt a heavy burden knowing that other cast members, the MC, and the production staff all had to wait because of her personal-life issue.
Kim Jung-eun looked back, saying, “In a way, we were somewhat brave. So many people were waiting and everything had stopped because of me, so it was an atmosphere in which I had to take the bullets and say, ‘I’m truly sorry. I’ll take care of everything.'”
It was a time when people in the public eye had to personally explain their relationships, breakups, and even divorces before the public. The two women smiled as they looked back on the past, but Kim Jung-eun’s words, “I didn’t want to talk about it,” revealed 18 years later how much weight entertainers had to bear at the time.
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
