Actor Hwang Seok-jeong. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) provided]
Actor Hwang Seok-jeong. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) provided]

Actor Hwang Seok-jeong has spoken publicly for the first time about a betrayal by her first love.

On Sunday's episode of SBS variety program "Miun Uri Saekki," a celebrity talk show, Hwang visited an infidelity and divorce detective agency alongside actors Choi Jin-hyeok, Jo Jin-se and Park Se-mi. "There is something I never resolved that still sits like a lump in my heart," she said, opening the subject.

Hwang said she met her first love when she was around 26 or 27. "One day he put on a suit and told me he had something to do and would be late," she recalled. "But I suddenly had a very strong gut feeling that something was off."

She went on to say that he had been acting differently — taking phone calls outside and smiling at other women. "The feeling was so strong that I casually tested him, and he was startled," she said. "That's when I was certain there was another woman."

Hwang said the reason her first love had worn the suit was that he had been attending a wedding — his own. "It turned out he had gotten married that very day," she said.

She then said that at the time she had been caring for an ailing junior colleague from her theater days, only to later discover that the man had been seeing both her and the junior colleague while already married.

Hwang said she later learned he had brazenly told his wife that he had no choice but to keep seeing Hwang because she had threatened to kill herself if he stopped. "He made up that story to get himself out of the situation," she said.

Hwang said the experience left her unable to have a proper relationship afterward. "People like that pretend to be good, but it's all lies," she said. "It felt like I had been to the very depths of hell."

A detective on the same episode also shared warning signs of infidelity — among them, an unfamiliar address registered on a partner's food delivery app and membership in chat rooms used by people seeking to identify whether potential partners are married, single or divorced.


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