The spotlight is once again on legendary Korean actress Sunwoo Yong-nyeo, whose heartbreaking and almost unbelievable wedding day story has resurfaced. Once known as Korea’s first celebrity to have a child out of wedlock, she’s now being recognized for her unshakable perseverance after marrying into a financial disaster.
In a 2013 episode of SBS’s “Dolsing Fourmen,” Sunwoo recalled how her husband was absent on their wedding day, leaving her alone at the altar. The reason? He was reportedly at the police station over a business dispute, having offered to pay off a partner’s promissory note of ₩17.5 million—an amount that would now equal around ₩20 billion KRW.
“Someone told me if I stamped the documents, the wedding could go ahead. So I did it. I didn’t understand back then—but it meant I became the guarantor for the debt,” she shared. Her husband was eventually released, and they held a second wedding.
Sunwoo married her then-10-years-older husband in 1969, and the couple went on to have a son and a daughter. He passed away in 2014 after battling dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
During a January 6 broadcast of Channel A’s “Detectives: The Trade Secret,” Sunwoo opened up further, “I didn’t even go home for over ten years—I just worked to pay that debt. One day I collapsed during filming. They said it was malnutrition.”
She added, “We even lost 20,000 pyeong of land because of that debt. All I thought was—I have to survive. That’s why I only lived for work, for home, and for the set.”
In a 2023 episode of “Dr. Oh’s Golden Clinic,” she recalled her late husband with deep emotion, “I thought he had it easy while I was working hard, but looking back, he just wanted to talk to me. I didn’t realize… and now I miss him.”
Sunwoo Yong-nyeo began her career in 1965 as a dancer with TBC, later transitioning into acting with the 1966 film “A Soldiers Tells After Death” and the drama “Court Ladies”. For decades, she has remained a steadfast presence in Korean entertainment.
