Why Yuri Told Lee Hyori She Was 'Pregnant With 5 Kids'

Girls’ Generation’s Kwon Yuri has given fans one of the most entertaining celebrity wellness encounters of 2026, but the best part is not the yoga — it’s the reason she gave for her terrible posture.

On March 26, Yuri posted a series of photos to her Instagram Stories, documenting a visit to Lee Hyori’s yoga studio “Ananda”, located in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. The caption praised the session: “Healing yoga where I felt the warm energy and charismatic energy of Ananda teacher.”

But buried inside the post was a detail that quickly went viral. When Lee Hyori greeted Yuri, she immediately zeroed in on her hunched posture. Yuri’s explanation? A deadpan reply: “It’s probably because I’m pregnant with my fifth child and have no time to take care of my body — the body really can’t lie.”

Before anyone starts searching for baby bump photos, here is what actually happened. Yuri is not personally pregnant. The “fifth child” belongs to Carla — the character she is currently playing in a psychological thriller stage play called The Wasp, running now at Sejong S Theatre in Seoul. Yuri leaned so fully into the role that she blamed her fictional character’s pregnancy for the state of her very real spine.

The Play Behind the Joke

The Wasp is a tense two-hander about former high school classmates — Heather and Carla — who reunite after two decades apart. Heather seeks out Carla, a woman she once bullied in school, to confront a past neither of them can leave behind. Carla, the character Yuri plays, is a rough-edged woman pregnant with her fifth child, navigating a life defined by hardship and survival.

Yuri has thrown herself into the role with full commitment. She purchased a maternity suit to physically understand what carrying a pregnancy feels like, and booked accommodation near the rehearsal studio to stay as close to the character as possible during preparation. In an interview on SBS NIGHTLINE on March 25 — the evening before her yoga visit — she reflected on the process: “Carla was very different from the roles I have played before. As an actress, I was very eager to take on the challenge. It was a continuous journey of trying something new from start to finish.”

So when Lee Hyori spotted her collapsed posture in the studio, Yuri answered entirely in character — blaming Carla’s pregnancies for the damage — before catching herself with a self-deprecating laugh. The meta-humour of an actress blaming her fictional alter ego for the toll on her actual spine hit perfectly with Korean audiences.

The Wasp runs at Sejong S Theatre until April 26, 2026.

Inside Lee Hyori’s Ananda Studio

The setting for this exchange has its own story. When Lee Hyori opened Ananda Yoga Studio in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul in September 2025, it became one of the most talked-about celebrity wellness ventures in recent Korean entertainment. The name “Ananda” is Lee Hyori’s personal yoga name, and the studio is an extension of her personal philosophy around movement and mindfulness.

Lee Hyori began practising yoga seriously in 2016 and spent years informally teaching friends and staff during the decade she and her husband, musician Lee Sang-soon, lived on Jeju Island. After the couple relocated to Pyeongchangdong, Seoul in 2024, she turned that long-held practice into a public studio — opening Ananda to the public in September 2025.

What caught many off guard was the pricing. A single class costs 35,000 KRW (approximately $25 USD) — a figure that surprised fans expecting a celebrity-run studio in central Seoul to charge considerably more. Lee Hyori teaches classes personally, sessions consistently sell out, and the studio operates under a strict no-photo and no-video policy during class — a rule she put in place herself to protect the integrity of the space and the practice.

Since opening, Ananda has become a quiet gathering point for Korean entertainment figures seeking rest away from public scrutiny. Lee Hyori’s teaching style, by all accounts, is warm but candid — which, as Yuri discovered, includes calling out a slouch the moment you walk through the door.

A Friendship Built on Yoga and Goryangju

The warmth of the encounter between Yuri and Lee Hyori was not accidental. The two women have been friends for years, connected by a shared love of movement and mutual comfort with being entirely themselves in public.

In 2018, Lee Hyori appeared on JTBC’s Kim Je-dong’s Talk to You and mentioned casually that she and Yuri had once shared two full bottles of goryangju together — a Chinese sorghum liquor known for its intensity. The anecdote spread quickly and became a small but enduring piece of Korean celebrity folklore, confirming that Yuri could absolutely hold her own in the company of her legendary senior.

Over the years that followed, comparisons between the two women multiplied. When Yuri began spending extended time on Jeju Island in 2024 and documented her yoga practice there, observers quickly drew the parallel. Lee Hyori had held the title of Jeju’s resident yoga goddess for nearly a decade; Yuri seemed to be picking up that mantle. Some outlets dubbed her the “little Lee Hyori” — a comparison that reads as respect given how much Yuri clearly admires her.

Yuri’s post from the studio made that admiration visible. She referred to Lee Hyori as “an older sister who communicates through yoga,” described the session as “the deepest rest of all,” and photographed a portrait of Lee Hyori displayed inside the studio with the caption: “a person I respect.”

Fan Reactions and What Comes Next

The post moved quickly through Korean entertainment communities. Fans immediately connected the pregnancy to Carla in The Wasp, and the response was broadly warm and amused. Many highlighted Yuri’s in-character humour outside of rehearsal as evidence of how deeply she had committed to the role. Others rediscovered Lee Hyori’s studio through the story, with many noting surprise at the 35,000 KRW price point and admiration that Lee Hyori continues to teach in person.

For Lee Hyori, who shared her 2026 goals as staying close to passion and challenge, Ananda has become something more than a celebrity side project. It is where her decades-long commitment to yoga found a public home — one still drawing artists in search of the same grounding she once sought on Jeju.

For Yuri, the weeks ahead belong to the final run of The Wasp. With performances continuing through April 26 at Sejong S Theatre, she remains deep inside a character who is, among other things, officially responsible for Yuri’s posture problems. The body, as Lee Hyori reminded her, really can’t lie.