What Nobody Understands About Song Hye Kyo from THE GLORY

Song Hye Kyo blew us away with her stellar performance in The Glory, and just like Dong Moon, she's had a few ups and downs in life. In her early life, things weren't exactly the easiest for Hye Kyo, and these challenges started ever since she was born. When she was working on the set of That Winter The Wind Blows, director Shimu-chan posted a picture which showed that they were celebrating her birthday on the 27th of November. Some online outlets report that Hye Kyo was registered by her parents on the 26th of February, but that her real birthday is actually the 22nd of November. Allegedly, this is because Hye Kyo was very sick as a baby. In fact, she was so ill that they didn't know whether she would make it through or not. So when she recovered, her parents decided to mark the day she recovered as her birthday. The bad fortune didn't end there, because when Hye Kyo was young, her parents decided to split. Her father was no longer with them, and from then on, she was raised by her mother. In an interview in 2011, she spoke up about what life was like for them. She explained that her mother is very special to her, since that's her only true family. She shared that her mother worked really hard to raise her, and now that she's grown up, it seems like her mother finally has time to take care of herself. Hye Kyo expressed that it is now her turn to take care of her mother. And she definitely fulfilled her promises, because ever since her debut as a model in 1996, Hye Kyo's career skyrocketed. Her first breakthrough was in 2000 with her role in Autumn In My Heart that made her extremely popular throughout Asia. In only four years' time, she managed to turn herself into a top Hallyu star as her performance in Full House alongside Rain made her experience a wave of wide recognition. In 2007, she was even given the 8th place in a list of the most well-known actors and actresses of that time. She was so popular that she became the first Korean actress to ever appear on the cover of Vogue, not to mention that Celine dedicated a bag design to her early on in her career. In July of 2007, the brand revealed that they had teamed up with Hye Kyo to come up with this design for their Fall and Winter collection. They called the bag the Miss Song bag, and it was a very exclusive one at that, since less than a hundred were made. The bag was only sold in Asia, and Hye Kyo made sure to give back to her community since the proceeds of the sales went to charity. Although career-wise she has been getting lots of praise since she started, Hye Kyo has also become the victim of a lot of criticism because of her public relationships. People even go as far as shaming her because she has dated every male co-star of the TV dramas that she starred in. They claim that switching boyfriends every few years isn't a good look for a renowned actress like her. The first time Hye Kyo made a relationship of hers public was in 2003. At the time, she was dating Lee Byung Hun, whom she met on the set of the drama All In. The drama became a huge hit, and speculation around their relationship became the talk of the country. Shortly after All In ended, the two revealed that they were seeing each other, and this wasn't exactly received well by everyone. Although he was her first love, he was also 11 years older than her, and Koreans didn't really approve of this. Nevertheless, the two seemed incredibly happy with each other, always holding hands when paparazzi would snap a picture of them together. Every fairy tale eventually comes to an end though, because after a year of dating, they announced that they would be parting ways. People were accusing Hye Kyo of being the cause of their split because netizens believed that she had fallen in love with her co-star Rain from Full House. Things got so out of hand that both Hye Kyo and Rain had to release statements sharing that they were just close friends. Her breakup with Byung Hun undoubtedly left a mark on her because when she was asked which relationship was most memorable to her in 2014, she answered with, My first love. Byung Hun wasn't the last co-star she dated. In 2008, she once again turned an on-screen romance into reality. This time around, it was Hyun Bin she was seeing, whom she met on the set of Worlds Within. Viewers were obsessed with them on screen, so naturally, dating rumors sparked immediately. Clearly fans were right about their otherworldly chemistry since the couple announced in 2009 that they were seeing each other. They were so popular that they were even hailed as Asia's best on-screen couple to start dating. After two public years of dating, this relationship also came to an end. Hyun Bin's agency revealed that it was their busy schedules and the intense amount of public attention that made their relationship deteriorate. After two previous relationships with her fellow colleagues, Hye Kyo decided to take it a notch further and married her co-star Song Joong Ki in 2017. Her relationship with Joong Ki, whom she met on the set of Descendants of the Sun, arguably caused the biggest controversy in her life. Fans were obsessed with their characters in the drama, but little did they know that a romance was brewing behind the scenes as well. Despite being spotted together quite a few times in 2016, their agencies denied that they were seeing each other and stated that they were simply friends. But then, completely out of the blue, their agencies released a joint statement revealing that Joong Ki and Hye Kyo were actually getting married. Their wedding was on the 31st of October in 2017, and it was basically like an award show with how many celebrities attended. Their happiness together was short-lived though, because only after 20 months of being together, they parted ways. Their divorce became a hot topic not only in Korea, but also overseas. There was lots of speculation on what actually went down between them, since the way the divorce was handled was pretty messy. The abrupt divorce was announced by Joong Ki's agency, and reportedly, Hye Kyo found out about it after the news hit the media, just like the rest of us. Countless rumors came into existence, and people were assuming that it was Hye Kyo who had done something to upset her husband, since he was the one to file divorce. People even went as far as to believe it had something to do with the topic of children, as Hye Kyo had previously shared that she would take a break from working if they were to have children, but that never happened. Eventually, Hye Kyo's agency released a statement revealing that it was actually their clashing personalities that led to their split. Regardless of what the real reason was behind their divorce, the marriage quickly took a toll on Hye Kyo's health. While she was married to Joong Ki, it was reported that she lost so much weight to the point that her fingers were too skinny for her wedding ring to fit. When the divorce was announced, netizens were quick to blame Hye Kyo for it and even tore her apart for going out right after the split. There's a good reason to believe that all this negativity towards her was because netizens still held grudges against her for her tax evasion scandal. Although it happened in 2014, many of her Korean fans never forgot about it. It was reported that Hye Kyo managed to evade a sum of 2.5 million dollars in taxes from 2009 to 2011. Fans often feel betrayed whenever it hits the news that an actor has been caught up in a tax evasion scandal because they earned so much money with one episode alone. At the time, Hye Kyo apologized for the mishap and revealed that she wasn't aware her accountant had underreported her income taxes. She said she deeply regretted mishandling her tax affairs due to ignorance. Even though Hye Kyo tried to make things right by paying the money back and apologizing, the scandal still led to public uproar and damaged her good image. Despite being caught up in a few scandals here and there, Hye Kyo has always had her priority straight when it comes to acting and even gave us the performance of a lifetime in the glory. Her part as Dong Hoon is unlike anything we've seen from her before, and media outlets would agree on that. Netizens were stunned by her portrayal of Dong Hoon and massively went on the internet to show their support for Hye Kyo. Not only fans, but also magazines like Forbes acknowledged the fact that she did an amazing job. In their article about Hye Kyo, they wrote, In her nuanced portrayal of Dong Hoon, Song delivers a fractured, fixated character so hellbent on destroying her tormentors that she derives little happiness from her own existence. By choosing to do something completely different from her previous works, Hye Kyo managed to quiet down the people that criticized her for her acting throughout the years. She's known as the Melodrama Queen since she's mostly acted in dramatic romances for her entire career. At some point, the public acknowledged that this was getting a little repetitive. With her performance in The Glory, Hye Kyo showed us there's no question of a decline in acting skills. She blew everyone away, but the fact that people were so surprised by her good performance made her doubt herself. When she was asked about how she felt about her acting transformation, she responded with, I felt a little bad. I wondered what I had been doing until now. I realized I hadn't been showing the viewers this side of me until now, and that I should work harder. Now that she's said this, we're positive that she's going to give us a variety of mind-blowing performances in the next couple of years, because in the talent department, she's definitely not lacking. That was all on Song Hye Kyo. Let us know what you think in the comments. Thank you for watching. Bye.