Lee Yoon-sung: "Miscarriages after marriage, 4-year-old daughter's hernia surgery, and hiatus from activities"

Actress Lee Yoon-sung looked back on her life, candidly sharing the personal pain and family history she experienced during her long hiatus from the entertainment industry. Although she was once an actress who left a strong impression through popular commercials, the background of her hiatus was not simple retirement or skepticism toward the entertainment industry, but rather several events surrounding her family, such as pregnancy, miscarriages, and her child's surgery following her marriage.

On the 4th, Lee Yoon-sung appeared on MBN's 'While You Were Ill', where she had once been widely loved through a cosmetics advertisement famous for the copy "Clean, Clear, and Confident." At the time, the advertisement imprinted Lee Yoon-sung's clear and clean image on the public, and it was later mentioned as a representative stepping stone for stars, passed through by several female celebrities such as Im Su-jeong, Lee Yo-won, and Kim Ji-won. Recalling that she was in her mid-20s at the time, Lee Yoon-sung laughed, saying, "My skin was really good back then." While acknowledging the changes of time, she calmly looked back at her younger days when she was remembered by the public as an actress.

Regarding the long hiatus, she stated that contrary to public speculation, she did not intend to leave the entertainment industry herself. Lee Yoon-sung drew a line, saying, "It wasn't intentional, but the hiatus became very long," and "There were talks that I 'retired from the entertainment industry' or 'want to live quietly,' but that is not the case." She added, "I came here today because I wanted to talk about the things that happened to me." Rather than simplifying the long hiatus into a single choice or a retirement announcement, this part can be read as a process where the life events she faced made her prioritize family over her professional activities.

The first turning point in Lee Yoon-sung's life was 2005. She explained the process of meeting dentist Hong Ji-ho and getting married, saying, "2005 was the year the most important things happened in my life." She married a person who was close to her ideal type—homely and kind—and subsequently built a family while raising two daughters. It was also a period when the center of gravity shifted from her life as a celebrity to her family life centered around her spouse and children.

However, behind the happy marriage and pregnancy, there were experiences of loss that were difficult to reveal easily. Lee Yoon-sung confessed, "I became pregnant as the fruit of our love, but actually, I experienced miscarriages several times before that." Pregnancy and childbirth are not a natural process for everyone, and repeated experiences of miscarriage can leave significant anxiety and tension during subsequent pregnancy processes. Lee Yoon-sung also revealed, "I was so anxious that something might happen again that I just stayed lying down at home until I gave birth." This was the reason why protecting the fetus and her own health was more important than her activities as an actress.

An unexpected crisis also arrived during the process of raising her children. When her eldest daughter was four years old, while giving her a bath, she discovered a fist-sized lump suddenly protruding below the child's abdomen, and as a result of visiting the emergency room, she was diagnosed with a hernia. Lee Yoon-sung said she did not expect the hernia at all because the child did not usually express being in pain. Ultimately, the child had to undergo general anesthesia and open surgery, and Lee Yoon-sung expressed her feelings at the time, saying, "As a parent, it was a part I couldn't feel the pain for instead, so my heart ached so much."

A notable part of Lee Yoon-sung's confession is that she did not explain her hiatus as a single special event. The process of reorganizing life's priorities around the family—the anxiety from repeated miscarriages, the cautious time surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, and the sudden surgery of her young child—flowed naturally. While it appeared as a long hiatus to the public, for Lee Yoon-sung, it was a period when the reality she had to endure as a wife and mother felt much larger than her profession as an actress.

Through this broadcast, Lee Yoon-sung did not stop at bringing up her past fame but directly explained her life, which she had not been able to speak about for a long time. Having passed through personal loss and family crises hidden behind glamorous entertainment activities, she now viewed her hiatus as a process of life rather than defining it with the word 'retirement.'

'While You Were Ill' is a real healing speech program that listens to the stories of people who have overcome the curves of life tangled by illness. It airs every Sunday at 8:30 AM on MBN.