Lee Beom-soo asked to 'act like a man' in messy divorce proceedings

Actor Lee Beom-soo, pictured left, and his estranged wife Lee Yoon-jin [NEWS1]

Actor Lee Beom-soo’s estranged wife, Lee Yoon-jin, who publicly discussed the divorce on social media over the past weekend, says her husband's lawyers have asked her to “publish a statement that her claims were not true.”

“My cries have been finally heard and I have been contacted by [his] lawyer,” Lee Yoon-jin said in an Instagram Story on Thursday. “[Lee Beom-soo's] legal team passed on their client’s intention to 'think about it' if I released an article saying what I wrote was not true.”

Nevertheless, Lee Yoon-jin insisted, “what I wrote is based on facts and evidence. Therefore, I cannot publish a report saying it is false.”

Lee Beom-soo leads 'grotesque double life,' estranged wife says

The translator then apologized for having caused commotion, adding that she would “quietly take care of matters with evidence in court.”

Lee Yoon-jin accused the “The Roundup: No Way Out” star of being unfaithful and uncooperative during the couple's divorce proceedings and in the rearing of their children in social media posts over the weekend, claiming he had led “a grotesque double life.” She implied that she was unable to contact her son, who lives with the actor in Seoul, and asked about his well-being in the comments.

Lee Beom-soo’s agency, Y1 Entertainment, released a statement on Saturday denying Lee Yoon-jin’s claims, and said the actor would refute his estranged wife’s claims in court, without responding to her individual accusations. Korean media outlets have since reported that Lee has never blocked his wife from contacting their son.

Lee Yoon-jin conceded that those reports were true in an additional post on Thursday but clarified that they had not captured the full story.

“He doesn’t stop me from seeing them,” she wrote. “He consistently makes insults about me, the mother, to the children.”

Lee Yoon-jin also left a cryptic note regarding one specific article, which had implied that the couple's divorce had emerged from a difference in personalities rather than infidelity.

“I would rather he had fallen in love [with someone else],” she said. “There is a difference in ‘class’ of how ‘sex’ is treated.”

She concluded with a final post asking Lee Beom-soo to “act like a man” — either to settle matters in court or to fully reveal himself rather than spreading false information through intermediaries.

The couple married in May 2010 and have a son and daughter. They initiated divorce procedures this March after 14 years of marriage.

Lee Beom-soo is an actor, having made his debut with a supporting role in the 1990 film “Let’s Look at the Sky Sometimes.” Lee Yoon-jin is a translator and interpreter.

The couple’s marriage and family life with their children was documented on KBS’s reality show “The Return of Superman” (2013-). Lee Beom-soo won the Excellence Award in the variety show category at KBS’s Entertainment Awards in 2016 for his appearance in the program.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]