A Former Actress Exposes The Ugly Truth Behind Her Sudden Retirement — And It Involves A Married Actor
Content Warning
Former actress Heo Yi Jae recently sat down with former Crayon Pop member Way on her YouTube channel to discuss her previous life as an actress. If the actress sounds familiar to you, it’s because she began her career with the nickname, “little Kim Tae Hee” due to her resemblance to the A-list star.
While she’s been in numerous different productions, such as Sharp 1, Single Daddy in Love, and more, she made her breakthrough as one of the female leads in Goong S — the spin-off series from the cult favorite K-Drama, Princess Hours.
The actress had a great start to her career and was on her way to real stardom when she suddenly disappeared and unofficially announced her retirement from the industry with her hiatus. She provided no explanation and decided to end her activities following her contract expiration with YG Entertainment.
A full decade later, however, Heo Yi Jae has decided that now was the time to spill the truth about the events that led to her retirement.
Heo Yi Jae first prefaces the story by sharing that she doesn’t know if it’s “okay for it to be aired on a broadcast” since it involves a married man, but since the situation was “so unfair,” she felt like it needed to be revealed.
It’s to the point where I’m not even sure if it’s okay for it to be aired on a broadcast. But I have gathered up the courage to talk about the married actor because the entire thing is so unfair.
— Heo Yi Jae
Heo Yi Jae’s introduction was shocking enough on its own, but it was what she said next that really took all the viewers by surprise.
What he [married actor] did to me was the final tipping point that led to my retirement.
— Heo Yi Jae
It was following her heartbreaking introduction that the actress started to expose the ugliness that happened during her time on set with the unknown married actor. She shared that while he was sweet to her in the beginning, everything changed after she unknowingly turned down his advances.
He was my romantic partner for the production and in the beginning, he was really good to me. However, one day he asked me ‘Yi Jae-ya, how come you don’t call me on our days off?’ We see each other everyday so I told him, ‘oppa, it’s because we meet everyday and we’re on set for over 20 hours together.’
— Heo Yi Jae
The actress then began to detail the exact ways the actor changed his behavior towards her following his rejection.
He slowly started to change his behavior. On set, he would start calling me ‘you f*cking b*tch.’ He would say that every single day.
— Heo Yi Jae
Naturally, Way got curious and asked Heo Yi Jae if the actor was still promoting actively to this day, to which she answered “of course he is. He’s doing well.”
Following this segment, Heo Yi Jae shared who the actor was to Way off camera and the former Crayon Pop member shared her absolute loss of words after finding out who the man was.
I just heard who it was. I am completely shocked because I used to really like him.
— Way
Heo Yi Jae’s shocking reveal didn’t end there. She began to get into even more details, which involved somewhat of a clarifying moment following a discussion with the production’s director of the time.
One day, the production’s director came into my room after he [married actor] had one of his verbal explosions towards me. He asked me, ‘why do you think his [the actor] attitude towards you changed? Why do you think he started cursing at you on set?’
To this, I responded that I honestly had no idea why his [the actor] behavior changed. It was to this that the director said, ‘it’s because he is sexually attracted to you, but you keep denying his advances. I think it’s his way of trying to coerce you.’
— Heo Yi Jae
Following her conversation with the director, the actress shared that she decided to talk to the married actor to see if everything was okay. This is where the true intentions of the actor started to reveal themselves.
I entered his room and all of a sudden, like a joke, his voice completely changed and became kinder. He then said to me, ‘do you know what people have been saying about our drama?’ So I said, ‘what are they saying?’ He responded, ‘they are saying that we don’t seem like a couple.’
— Heo Yi Jae
After their brief interaction is where the married actor suggested an outrageous method to “become closer as a couple.”
He said to me, ‘do you know what a male and female needs to do in order to become closer as a couple?’ And that’s where he said, ‘they need to sleep together.’ After he said that, I froze because I didn’t know what to do.
He then asked me, ‘but you don’t want to do that, right?’ So I immediately answered that I didn’t want to.
— Heo Yi Jae
The former actress continued to expose the ugly side of the married actor, as she began to share his immediate and violent response to her rejection.
He immediately started throwing things at me while screaming at me, ‘then do better you f*cking b*tch! I can’t focus on my acting because of you b*tch!’
— Heo Yi Jae
She concluded her terrifying story by sharing that following that incident, her psychological well-being took a huge toll and all she wanted was for the production to end. Heo Yi Jae also shared the heartbreaking reality of how gaslighting also took a toll on her mental state at the time.
My psychological well-being was out the window at that point. I realized that nobody was going to help me so I just wanted the production to end. In the beginning, I thought that they were all the bad ones and I was the good one. However, as the time went on, my mindset shifted and I began to think I was the one in the wrong and they were all the good ones.
— Heo Yi Jae
We cannot even begin to fathom the hardships Heo Yi Jae endured during her time as an actress, but we truly applaud her bravery for sharing her story. You can watch the entire video down below.
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