It was his reaction to her role in the movie that eventually led to the divorce.
Model-turned-actress Jang Ga Hyun, best known for her role in KBS‘s Marriage Clinic: Love And War, was married to 015B vocalist Cho Sung Min (also known as Jo Sung Min) for two decades. The two tied the knot in 2000 and had two kids, but got divorced in 2020.
In 2022, the two appeared on TV Chosun‘s We Got Divorced Season 2, in which their troubled marriage was publicized. The show revealed the divorced couple had a string of issues that led to unresolved feelings of resentment toward one another.
As of November 7, 2024 (KST), Jang appeared in the latest episode of MBN‘s Exclusive World (or Teuk Jong Se Sang) where she elaborated on the struggle with her ex-husband’s excessive interference with her career.
According to Jang, her ex-husband was never too supportive of her acting. But when she received an offer to take on a role in a 2019 movie, How To Live In This World, he encouraged her at first.
The encouragement didn’t last long, though, as he began harassing her about a sex scene that came with the role. Jang said, “It was so, so stressful having to talk to him about it,” as he would question her about the scene, like how the moaning gets rehearsed for it.
Back then, I got an offer for a role in a movie. After receiving the script, I told my ex-husband that I really wanted to go back to shooting movies and that this role could really become a door-opening opportunity for me. I told him that I would like to take on the role. He agreed and encouraged me. So I accepted the role and started shooting.
But the role came with a sex scene. He would ask me things like, ‘which part did you work on today?’ or ‘how do you moan for the rehearsal?’ and whatnot. It was so, so stressful having to talk to him about it.
— Jang Ga Hyun
Previously, Jang confronted her ex-husband about it on the TV Chosun show and the ex-husband admitted to having “hated” her line of work. She commented that his lack of respect for her career was the last straw that led to the divorce.
Jang Ga Hyun: I think it was the movie that was the last straw for me. You… I thought you were fine with me working on that movie. But once I realized that you couldn’t handle it, I was unable to control my anger at you. It was work for me. What I do. But it felt like you were mocking and harassing me for it. That was really stressful for me.
Cho Sung Jin: I know. I did hate a lot of what came with your line of work. Like you having to show skin… Even something like a scene in which you’d wear a bathing suit, I was super sensitive about it.
Jang Ga Hyun: You were the one who gave me the OK, too. And I figured, after having been married 20 years, that you’d be actually OK with it. You told me, ‘Do it if you really want to do it.’ So, I did. But you were obviously not OK with it. What was I supposed to do, though? I had already accepted the role and begun shooting… I was stressed throughout the two years of shooting. Whenever you’d ask me what scenes I worked on… Or when you asked me if I moaned on set? Oh, I felt literally harassed.
After the movie, the divorce, and the TV Chosun show that publicized the divorce, Jang has not been able to act again. She said that she has not received a K-Drama or K-Movie offer since 2022—and that she continues to live in debt that she accrued after her non-acting business attempt failed and the ex-husband chose not to share the burden.
Jang explained that she and her ex-husband chose to appear on We Got Divorced for the money. She ended up receiving a tremendous amount of hateful comments after the show—and she has not spoken to her ex-husband since.
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