Actor and shaman Lee Geon-ju, who successfully reunited with his biological mother and younger sibling, revealed his feelings about the process of finding his family in a Q&A.

TV CHOSUN ‘Dad and Me’ stars Lee Gun-joo, a national child star who was loved for his role as ‘Soondol’ in the drama ‘Three Families Under One Roof’.He deeply moved viewers with his reunion with his two-year-old younger brother who was adopted to France after being separated from his mother 41 years ago.Lee Gun-joo, who made the difficult decision to meet his family again, recalled, “It was hard to keep learning new things about my family that I didn’t know about.” However, on the other hand, Lee Gun-joo confessed that his thoughts themselves changed after meeting his biological mother and younger brother, saying, “The meaning of family has changed a lot.” In order to resolve his younger brother’s curiosity, Lee Gun-joo, who plans to reveal the story of his younger brother’s adoption in France that he didn’t even know about on ‘Dad and Me’, shared his true feelings through a Q&A session.

1.What does ‘family’ mean to you? Has anything changed before and after appearing on ‘My Dad and I’ ?
- My only family members were my grandmother and aunts, but while doing ‘Me and Dad’, my thoughts on family changed a lot.I think I came to think of family not just as people who are related to me by blood, but in a positive sense, ‘family is something I can share my feelings with and who is always on my side when I’m having a hard time.’

2.You met your biological mother through’ Dad and Me ‘.What meaning did this meeting have in your life?
- I thought it would be okay to live without knowing the existence of a mother, but I wanted to meet her at least once because I was simply curious about’ what kind of person is my mother? ‘Of course, this meeting resolved the curiosity I had been holding on to for so long, but I don’ t place much meaning on a single meeting.She didn’t raise me, but as a child, I thought I should look for her before it was too late, so I decided to meet her.I respect my mother’s position and choice, so I have no resentment at all, and I just hope she is safe and healthy.

3.After your mother, you now found your lost younger brother.When did you find out about your younger brother’s existence?
- I found out about my younger brother 18 years ago.At that time, my younger brother Geoncheol came to Korea for a trip and took the ‘adoption record’ document to the police station, and the police station contacted my grandmother who was registered as the ‘adoption applicant’.At that time, my grandmother was in the hospital, so my eldest aunt contacted me instead, and that’s when we found out about each other.

4.What was the first thing you wanted to tell your younger brother when you met him?
- I thought a lot about what to say when we met, but all I could say was that I was sorry.It wasn’t my fault or Guncheol’s fault, but I just felt that I had to say sorry on behalf of my parents.

5.It must have been difficult to reunite with your younger brother after your mother.What was the most difficult moment in the process of finding your family?
- I think the hardest moment was when I kept finding out new facts about my family that I didn’t know about.On the other hand, there were things that I wished I had never known.I thought to myself, ‘My grandmother and aunts, who raised me without showing any signs of hardship, must have had a hard time,’ ‘They must have suffered a lot alone,’ and when Geon-cheol found out about these things, he said it was okay, but when I thought about how upset he must have been, my heart ached.

6.Have you ever been afraid of being hurt again while meeting your family? I’m also curious about why you decided to meet your family despite all that.
- My younger brother, Geon-cheol, was someone I just wanted to see until I died.As for my mother, I just wanted to meet her because I was curious.Since she gave birth to me, I think it was because of the primal curiosity of ‘what would she look like?’ I don’t have much affection for her, but I don’t hate her either.I’m grateful that she gave birth to me, but the ‘love for raising me’ is bound to be greater than the ‘love for giving birth to me,’ so I wanted to be more filial to my aunt than to my mother.If my mother still feels sorry toward me, I hope she understands and accepts it, so I hope she’s happy with her current family.

7.I think there must have been a time when the word ‘family’ left a scar.How has that scar taken shape now?
- The word family has never hurt me in my life.My parents were gone, but my grandmother and aunt were like a strong fence to me, so I don’t think I ever thought of it as hurtful.

8.What changes do you think appearing on ‘My Dad and I’ and reuniting with your family will bring to your life in the future?
- I have no obligation to talk about my ‘family’ on TV, but I was afraid of being the subject of gossip because I’m a celebrity.Anyway, I got to know my family through ‘Dad and Me’, and now that it’s known, I feel relieved that my worries have been resolved.I think my younger sibling will be able to travel around and live happily when they come to Korea.I know that there are many people who have similar family situations to mine, and that there are many who have had it harder than me, so I’m trying to accept this situation with gratitude.

9.In ‘Dad and Me’, you and Seungyeon Lee have a lot of tearful chemistry as ‘crybaby siblings’.Why do you two shed so many tears?
- I think it’s because we empathize with each other so well.Seungyeon had her own pains and I had my own pains, so I think I could feel it even without going into detail.I think she must have worried a lot before making a difficult decision like I did, so I could empathize.I think I cried a lot because I didn’t cry without knowing what the emotion was, but rather by putting myself in the shoes of the emotion, I could tell without saying much by just looking at each other’s eyes, ‘what must have been in your mind at that time’.

The family history of Lee Geon-ju, which is being revealed for the first time in relation to the adoption of his younger brother who was adopted to France 41 years ago, can be seen on TV CHOSUN ‘Dad and Me’ airing at 10 p.m.on Tuesday the 17th.

Reporter Yoonna Choi com Donga.com yyynnn@donga

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.