Where Is She Now? The First Female K-Pop Idol To Get Married And Pregnant While Active
For female K-Pop idols, getting married and having families usually means the end of their active promotions in their respective groups. Usually, this happens after the member has left the group, but former Wonder Girls member Sunye managed to do both things while still under the Wonder Girls’ name.
In February 2007, JYP Entertainment‘s first girl group, Wonder Girls, made their debut with the single “Irony.” At this time, the line-up consisted of five members — Yeeun, Sunye, Sunmi, HyunA, and Sohee.
In July of the same year, HyunA departed from the group, and Yubin joined the line-up right before promotions for the hit single “Tell Me” began. The group’s popularity grew as they released more songs like “So Hot” and “Nobody” in 2008.
In 2009, the group set their sights on making an American debut and, following the release of an English version of “Nobody,” joined American boy group the Jonas Brothers on the US leg of their world tour, opening for a total of 45 concerts.
The group’s American plans were interrupted by the departure of Sunmi, leading them to delay their planned US tour and add a new member, a JYPE trainee named Hyerim. The group eventually returned to plans for their American career in 2011 and 2012, when the made-for-tv movie The Wonder GIrls was released on TeenNick.
In November 2012, member Sunye announced she would marry in January 2013. The group had a final performance at the Winter Special Olympics in Pyeongchang before entering a hiatus, with JYP Entertainment stating that Sunye would not be leaving the group.
This was eventually proven incorrect — After Sohee left the company in 2013 to focus on her acting career, Sunye officially “retired” from entertaining in 2014 to focus on her family and missionary work in Haiti after giving birth to her first child. Their departures from the group were officially confirmed by JYPE in 2015 before Reboot‘s release.
Sunye gave birth to another child in April 2016 and was even spotted on stage singing at an event in Canada, where she had been living.
Despite claiming to have retired from the entertainment industry, Sunye was announced to have signed with Polaris Entertainment in 2018 and joined the reality program Mama The Idol. The show featured six former idols who left the entertainment industry to become parents forming the idol group M.M.D and releasing the song “WooAh Hip.”
She then welcomed her third child in January 2019, a baby girl.
Though netizens attacked the star when her initial comeback was announced, she eventually signed with Blockberry Creative in February 2022. She released her first solo album, Genuine, in July of that year, promoting the lead tracks on music shows.
It was announced in late 2022 that she would star in the musical Ruth, which held performances from March 3 to April 2, 2023.
Seeing more female idols have families and return to doing what they love is great!
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