Sometimes a couple has to break up to realize they were really meant to be together. That's what happened to soccer star Ki Sung Yeung and actress Han Hye Jin.
Although the now happily married couple was drawn to each other, their relationship had many obstacles to overcome. For a start, they were both celebrities with a public image to maintain. It's harder to date when everyone is watching you. Then there was the age difference. She is eight years older than he is. Rumors said their parents did not approve.
"Both she and I thought about all the challenges we faced," said Ki Sung Yeung in a letter to his fans. "Since we get a lot of attention from people due to the nature of our jobs, things were rather difficult."
As their relationship began to get serious, the anxiety about such obstacles grew. He decided they ought to break up before things became too serious. He expected his decision to upset her but she made it easy for him.
She said simply, "I understand."
And she did. She felt that the negative reactions about their age difference were making life too difficult for him.
But in the end they could not deny their attraction for each other. No matter how hard they tried not to think about each other while they were awake, they kept showing up in each other's dreams.
She got a message from him one morning telling her how she appeared in his dreams and she confessed he had been in hers. They realized how important they were to each other.
They decided to marry and to do so sooner rather than later. When they announced their wedding plans after only three months of dating, fans immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. Rumors began circulating that it would be a shotgun wedding.
To set the record straight, he wrote the letter to his fans saying that he was marrying Han Hye Jin for all the right reasons.
"She's someone I can depend on for the rest of my life," he said. "I was scared at first but I knew that it would be the biggest regret of my life if I let go of her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her."
The couple married this week at Seoul's Intercontinental Hotel. When filming wraps up for "When A Man Loves," Han Hye Jin, the star of the drama "Syndrome" and the host of the variety show "Healing Camp," will join her husband in England where he plays soccer.
