She spent her life taking care of her mother.
Veteran singer-songwriter Yang Hee Eun recently revealed her difficult family history during a YouTube appearance.
On October 29, KST, Yang appeared as a guest on actress Sunwoo Yong Yeo’s YouTube channel, where she talked about her life, career, and her newly opened café in honor of her mother.
Yang Hee Eun quickly rose to stardom after her debut in 1971, owing to her unique voice and deep resonance, which were not heard much in female singers before. For 55 years, she has been enjoying a successful career and remains active as an artist even today. However, this success story has a painful backdrop, which Yang opened up about in the YouTube video.
Yang is often referred to as the “K-eldest daughter,” a pop-culture term used to describe the difficult lived reality of eldest daughters in the Korean society. The singer lived her entire life caring for her mother after her parents divorced in her childhood. Yang recalled those times, firmly admitting, “My mother and father did not get along. It was an advanced form of divorce.”
Yang clarified that her parents separated in the 70s, when the concept of divorce didn’t really exist. One day, when her mother got angry and left the house, Yang saw her father bring in a new woman that very night.
One day, my mother got so angry that she said she would go to her parents’ home, and that night my father brought a new woman home. My father had gone mad.
— Yang Hee Eun
The singer recalled that her father was affectionate toward her, but his conduct toward her mother was unforgivable to her.
Yang continued, explaining that that’s how her parents separated and admitted that her mother lived with many regrets afterwards, the primary one being that she endured the dysfunctional marriage for too long.
Her story appeared to have hit close to home for Sunwoo Yong Yeo, who also had a complicated marriage. She even admitted to being physically abused by her husband on TV. Read more here:
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