If you've been a Kpop fan for a while now, you probably know of Seo Taiji and the Boys, a legendary Korean group. So it was no wonder that the nation fell into shock when it was revealed very belatedly that Seo Taiji and actress Lee Ji Ah were once married in secret before she debuted. According to news reports, the two met each other in 1993 in the States, filed for marriage in 1997, and filed divorce papers in 2006 before it became finalized in 2009.
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Lee Ji Ah started off, "I learned it's simply not a matter of hiding behind a rock when you are hiding a secret with a celebrity that the entire nation knows of... There were times I had to give up a lot of things because of this... The love that I had chosen was one that was secretive to the point that I could not even afford to have a squirrel catch a sighting of me... I couldn't tell anyone... I couldn't have felt any more alone. It eventually reached a point where I became used to being by myself, and I realized this was poison to me. That was when it had gone too far."
The MCs asked how her family had reacted to this and whether they knew, and the actress confessed that her family did not know for a very long time as she cut off communication with them for 7 years.
"I finally contacted them after about 7 years. I saw them for the first time in 7 years. At that time, it just had to be like that. I chose to live an abnormal life as he [Seo Taiji] had wanted me to and at that time, I thought I was protecting our love by doing so," she said.
She also explained that she and Seo Taiji had met when she had attended a concert in LA, California where he had come to perform. She was 16 at the time. The two then later started to live together in the utmost secrecy and got married, a time period during which she isolated herself and cut off contact with people she loved to protect her secret with the famous singer.
As this news was revealed around the time when her former relationship with Jung Woo Sung had been public knowledge, the MCs asked Lee Ji Ah whether he knew about her past before the news broke out and how he reacted. "I told him when we went to Paris together. It was the first time that I had ever been on a street date in my life, and I thought that I should reveal everything to him... With difficulty, I told him everything. But he [Jung Woo Sung] told me so nonchalantly, 'I had a girlfriend I was in a relationship with for 10 years too.' I was so thankful [about how he reacted]."
When asked how she reacted when her past became public knowledge, Lee Ji Ah stated, "I was eating a meal with an unni I knew when I suddenly received a phone call, I experienced the most intense feeling I had ever felt in my life then. My hands started to shake and I felt as if I was just melting down. I didn't want to admit that a secret that I had dedicated my life to protect had been revealed."
"I went back home and for about 10 days, I just stared at the wall. I didn't do anything, much like a patient at a mental hospital. In a state of severe shock, I lost all track of time. I couldn't eat either. I thought that I might die this way, so I would take a few vitamins to get myself through... For about 4 months, I did not come out of my house. But something that was even more sad was the fact that I realized I was already used to doing that," hinting that she had also spent much time being alone and not leaving the house during her secret romance.
With Lee Ji Ah opening up about her past for the first time, this episode of 'Healing Camp' ranked first in its time slot in viewer ratings.
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Funny how he dated a 16y old, lived with her than got married. But the only person life being ruined when the scandal broke was the woman ! He was not even 1% hurt by it cause he’s extremely popular, rich and he’s a man.