Korean actor Lee Ho Chul has opened up about a heartbreaking family history, revealing on a variety show that he had been out of contact with his mother for more than two years after she raised him as a single mom.
Lee Ho Chul (Credits: Koreaboo)
On the October 25 episode of the SBS variety show My Ugly Duckling, Lee Ho Chul appeared alongside close friends Bae Jung Nam and Hyun Bong Sik and asked them for a favor, before sharing the story he had kept to himself.
“Actually, I haven’t contacted my mom in over two years,” he said. He explained that his mother divorced when he was five and raised him and his younger sister while running a skewer restaurant, with little left over after simply trying to make ends meet. “It’s not easy for a single woman to raise two kids alone,” he said.
Lee Ho Chul’s childhood with his grandmother
Lee Ho Chul said he then went to live with his grandmother, who also struggled financially. When there was no rice, she would buy large packs of noodles for the family to eat for a week, an experience that stayed with him so deeply that he did not eat noodles until his mid-30s.
When his grandmother’s health worsened, his mother took him back, but a difference in values between them grew. Lee Ho Chul said he could not go to college and ended up working in a factory, while his mother wanted them to earn and manage money together. The disagreement caused a rift, contact narrowed to once or twice during holidays, and he became independent.
“To be honest, I was pretty much kicked out,” he said. “I guess I was holding a lot of resentment.”
Lee Ho Chul reconnects with his mother
The turning point came recently, when Lee Ho Chul called his mother and learned that a polyp had been found in her colon during a health checkup. Worried, he decided he wanted to see her.
“Since I came to Daegu, I want to see her, and I’d appreciate it if my brothers could come with me,” he told his friends. The three then stopped by a flower shop, bought flowers, and prepared to meet Lee Ho Chul’s mother together.
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Source: Koreaboo — read the full story there.
