Lee Yeon-hee Opens Up About Having a Second Child: 'As Long as I Have the Strength'

Actress Lee Yeon-hee gave viewers a rare and warm look into her personal life during her guest appearance on SBS variety show My Ugly Duckling (미운 우리 새끼), which aired on March 29. The episode pulled in a 9.8% viewership rating according to Nielsen Korea — a strong number for a weekend variety slot — and Lee Yeon-hee's candid conversation about marriage, motherhood, and family planning was clearly part of the draw.

The actress, now in her seventh year of marriage, spoke openly about her hope to have a second child. "As long as I have the strength, I'd like to have more children," she said, adding personal context that made the sentiment feel genuine rather than performative: "I grew up as one of four siblings — one brother and three sisters — and having that many brothers and sisters around me was just something I've always been grateful for."

Finding Balance in a Busy Life

Lee Yeon-hee is currently raising her 19-month-old daughter, and she spoke candidly about the challenges and joys of navigating motherhood alongside an acting career. One of her closest confidants in that process, she revealed, is fellow actress Choi Ji-woo — a friendship that has taken on added meaning since both women became mothers.

"When we meet, we talk about parenting worries," Lee Yeon-hee said. "We share similar concerns because of our work — how to balance career and family. I get a lot of help from her." She also mentioned a practical dimension to that friendship: Choi Ji-woo's daughter is older, and the hand-me-downs have been a genuine source of support. "She gives me her daughter's things, and I'm really grateful for that," she laughed.

The bond between the two actresses reflects something that rarely gets discussed openly in Korean entertainment: the specific pressures of maintaining a public career while also being a parent, and the value of having someone in the same industry who understands exactly what that balancing act feels like.

The Story Behind the Marriage

Lee Yeon-hee married her non-celebrity husband in June 2020, and the story of how they got together provided one of the episode's lighter moments. Her husband, it turned out, had told his friends about their relationship before they married — but none of them believed him.

MC Shin Dong-yup asked about it directly, prompting Lee Yeon-hee to laugh and share what had apparently become a running joke in their household: her husband has been known to say he must have "used up all his luck" ending up with her. The line landed well with the studio audience, partly because of how Lee Yeon-hee delivered it — with the kind of affectionate eye-roll that speaks to a genuinely comfortable marriage.

Shin Dong-yup, for his part, responded to her second-child plans with enthusiastic support, telling her he would be "actively rooting for her" — a moment that generated visible warmth in the studio.

A Career Defined by Quiet Steadiness

Lee Yeon-hee has been one of the steadier presences in Korean entertainment for nearly two decades, known for her work in dramas like East of Eden and Miss Korea as well as several well-regarded films. Her public profile has always been on the quieter side — she tends to let her work speak rather than seeking the spotlight in other ways — which is part of what made her My Ugly Duckling appearance feel like a genuine moment of openness.

For viewers who have followed her career, seeing her talk this comfortably about her family life and her hopes for the future offered a glimpse that her professional restraint doesn't extend to who she actually is behind closed doors. She came across as someone genuinely content with where she is — and quietly optimistic about what comes next.

The 9.8% rating for the episode suggests audiences responded to exactly that quality. In a media landscape often dominated by more performative kinds of celebrity conversation, Lee Yeon-hee's straightforwardness clearly found an audience.