[YouTube channel 'Wonderful Life with Song Seung-hwan']
[YouTube channel 'Wonderful Life with Song Seung-hwan']

Actor Lee Hwi-hyang has said her return to acting after a five-year hiatus was made possible by the strong support of her late husband, Kim Du-jo, who was 19 years her senior.

A video titled "Actor Lee Hwi-hyang, Episode 2 (The Husband Who Encouraged Her Comeback and the Start of Her Golden Years)" was released Tuesday on the YouTube channel "Wonderful Life with Song Seung-hwan."

Lee said she had stepped away from acting for about five years after getting married following her debut in the drama series "Chief Inspector." The opportunity to return to the stage came while she and her husband were living in Pohang.

"At the time we were living in Pohang, and I got an offer to do a play," Lee said. "My husband was the one who encouraged me to take it, but I said I couldn't — that theater wasn't something you just do casually."

Lee, who had a son with Kim during their marriage, recalled how her husband stepped in to make it work. "Theater requires months of rehearsal, and I said I had a child to raise," she said. "My husband offered to look after our son himself. I performed for three months, and he was always there in the front row."

She went on to describe how winning the presidential award at a regional theater festival became a turning point. "My husband told me, 'You need to be acting. You can't stay in the provinces,' so I went straight up to Seoul," she said. "Choi Bool-am came to see me in person and offered me a role in a play opening at Hyundai Arts Center. I was overjoyed — I loved it even more than drama series."

Back on stage with her husband's steady backing, Lee appeared in "Daughter of a Pig" and won the best actress award, reaffirming her standing as an actor.

Watching her succeed, her husband urged her again: "You should be an actor. This is no place for you to stay."

Ultimately, Lee packed up and moved to Seoul on her husband's word alone, and went on to reach the peak of her career.

Lee married Kim Du-jo in 1982. Kim, who was 19 years her senior, had ties to organized crime before the marriage but reportedly left that life behind after they wed. The couple had two sons together. Lee was widowed in 2005 when Kim died after battling lung cancer.


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