Wonder Girls’ ex-member Sunye just opened up about her past, giving everyone a reality check on what the idol industry is like.
On the episode of MBN’s ‘Dongchimi’ that aired on the 4th, Sunye appeared as a guest alongside comedian Paeng Hyunsook, singer Shoo, and Ha Wonmi to talk about the heavy theme, “I never knew it would be this hard to live as myself.”
During this episode, Sunye gave everyone a life update after completely stepping away from her Wonder Girls days to raise three daughters. She shared, “My oldest daughter is already in the first year of middle school,” blowing everyone away with how fast the time flies.
Hearing this, host Kim Yongman pointed out, “You're both a mother and an idol. A lot of people were disappointed when you stopped promoting.” That’s when Sunye got honest about how hard motherhood can be. She admitted:
“The phrase ‘it’s hard to live as yourself’ didn’t really resonate with me before. Before becoming a mother, my life revolved around me. But after having children, everything in my life became centered on them. My priorities changed. That’s when I realized just how difficult it is to truly live as yourself.”
For over a decade, people have been dying to know the real story behind her early marriage. Sunye finally addressed the question she always gets: "How could you give everything up when your career was at its absolute peak?"
She explained, “I achieved my dream at a young age, and my life changed dramatically. But at the same time, I also experienced the deaths of my father and grandfather. That led me to think deeply about life from a young age.” She added:
“Being on stage may be a glamorous profession, but I realized that the most important stage in my life is living my own life.”
She continued, "I started being a mom a bit earlier than most after getting married and having kids," and” added, “But since it was the path I chose, I decided to embrace it and just enjoy the ride."
When you look at the timeline, Sunye actually promoted with Wonder Girls for about five or six years before getting married to a Korean-Canadian man in 2013 at the age of 24. After putting her activities on hold, she officially left the group in 2015. She spent the next 13 years focusing entirely on housework and childcare. She pointed out, “I’ve actually spent more time away from work than I did working.”
In 2021, Sunye decided to take the leap and officially returned to the entertainment industry through the show ‘Mama the Idol.’ She said she deeply related to the show’s concept of mothers reclaiming their careers after a long break and told herself, "Let's be brave."
A huge reason for her comeback was that she wanted to show her three daughters exactly what their mom is capable of. She shared, “I want them to naturally realize, ‘Oh, so this is the kind of work mom used to do.’ I also thought that seeing their mom take on a brand-new challenge would be a great life lesson for them.”
Today, Sunye is successfully balancing her family life as a mom of three girls while keeping her career in entertainment going strong.
.jpg)
