Singer Ha Ri-su. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) via The Korea Herald]
Singer Ha Ri-su. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) via The Korea Herald]

Singer Ha Ri-su has spoken openly about why she and her ex-husband Mickey Jung divorced.

Ha appeared on the YouTube channel "An Seon-yeong's Double Life," released Friday, and reflected on her marriage to Mickey Jung, a fellow singer she wed in 2007 and spent roughly 11 years with.

"We didn't break up because things were bad between us," she said. About seven or eight months before the divorce, Mickey Jung had started a business, and she watched him grow increasingly passionate about his work.

"Seeing that, I started to wonder whether I might be holding this man back somehow," she said.

She added: "Honestly, I didn't need him to earn money. I liked having someone at home who took care of me. But as he got busier with his business, I thought — maybe I need to let this person go, so he can live in the world not as Ha Ri-su's husband, but as his own person."

Ha also said she had long felt guilty about being unable to have children.

"My former parents-in-law gave us their blessing even knowing I couldn't have children, but my husband was an only child," she said. "That was always a source of guilt and sorrow for me."

"Part of me may have wanted to see him meet someone else after we parted, have children and build that kind of life," she added. "That was my own feeling."

Ha said she was the one who first brought up separating.

"I told him I hoped we could each cheer the other on and go our separate ways," she said.

Ha Ri-su and Mickey Jung married in 2007 and divorced after about a decade together. Mickey Jung has since started a new family. Ha said she refrains from reaching out to him first, out of consideration for him.


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