Hwang Jung Eum earns praise for candid confession about past surgery

“I don't know why I did it.” Actress Hwang Jung Eum has revealed that she underwent breast surgery 16 years ago without telling anyone. While she originally chose the procedure because she wanted to look more voluminous, she eventually had the implants removed. Following her confession, netizens are offering unexpected support, commenting, “It feels like she has nothing left to hide now.”

During a video titled 'The Day I Went Lingerie Shopping in Namdaemun' uploaded to her YouTube channel on the 23rd, Hwang brought up her past while discussing lingerie. She explained that she used thick pads as a child because she wanted a more glamorous figure, stating, “Breast surgery was a trend in 2010. I had the surgery secretly, without telling my family or anyone else.” She even joked, noting she was filming the drama 'Giant' at the time, “If you look, the volume is different.”

However, the problems arose after the surgery. Hwang explained that during the recovery process, she ate a lot, which led to weight gain and a feeling of heaviness in her body, eventually causing her back to hunch. She later underwent surgery to remove the implants, noting that the removal process was even more painful, but she feels more comfortable now, adding, “I don't know why I did it.” This is a confession regarding her own personal experience rather than a generalization of the medical outcomes of specific surgeries.

She was also blunt about her regrets regarding facial plastic surgery. Reflecting on her past choices, Hwang remarked in essence that since her parents gave her a good face, there was no need to spend money to ruin it, emphasizing that “natural is best” as she is currently in the process of recovering. As she has recently spoken relatively freely about the public's perception of her appearance and daily life, this confession is also seen as a way of revealing her own trial and error rather than maintaining a perfect star image.

The background behind Hwang's recent tendency to speak candidly about her past on YouTube includes a shift in her image as an actress. While she built public recognition through dramas such as 'Giant', 'High Kick Through The Roof', 'Secret Love', and 'Kill Me, Heal Me', she has recently experienced a situation where public interest in her private life and daily routine outweighs interest in her characters. In particular, she underwent trial for an embezzlement case involving family corporation funds, where the court sentenced her to 2 years in prison with a 4-year stay of execution. At the time, Hwang's side admitted to the charges and fully reimbursed the embezzled amount, and the court took into account that she was a first-time offender and had made the reimbursement when determining the sentence.

Therefore, the eye-catching part of this video is not the simple 'confession of breast surgery' itself. It is Hwang's attitude in looking back at the surgery she once chose for a better appearance and talking about her failures and regrets with a laugh. While even minor physical changes in a star become subjects of articles and comments, Hwang appears to be facing those gazes head-on by bringing up her own past first. The reason her honest confession—which neither beautifies nor hides her past choices—is receiving reactions like “I like that she is honest” and “It seems like she has let go of a lot” instead of criticism is due to this transparency.