Kim Jun-ho Is Having Morning Sickness at 52, and His Pregnant Wife Is Just Fine

Comedian Kim Jun-ho wept in a hospital waiting room after learning his wife had become pregnant through IVF, a moment that aired in full on the August 30 episode of SBS's Miwoo-sae (also known as My Little Old Boy). The scene has been building for months: the couple had previously disclosed on the show that they were pursuing in vitro fertilization, drawing wide support from viewers and fellow cast members.

The episode walked through the entire arc, from the first embryo transfer to the moment their doctor confirmed the pregnancy by reporting strong hormone levels. When Kim Ji-min turned to her husband outside the consultation room and called him "Durub's dad", Durub being the nickname they had already chosen for the baby, Kim Jun-ho folded onto a waiting room sofa and covered his face with his hands. Cast member Seo Jang-hoon, watching in the studio, said quietly that the situation felt personally familiar: "In many ways, we're in the same circumstances. Age included."

A surprise that didn't go quite as planned

The pregnancy reveal itself, which aired as a behind-the-scenes segment, was less tearful. During a camping trip, Kim Ji-min handed her husband what appeared to be a property tax reminder notice. Kim Jun-ho stared at it, visibly confused, for about ten seconds before registering that the paper read "happiness property tax" and had a pregnancy test strip attached. By Kim Ji-min's account, he did not shed a single tear in that moment, a detail she shared on camera to considerable laughter from the studio audience.

Both mothers were told separately. Kim Ji-min's mother, already a grandmother to seven grandchildren, received the news with relative composure. Kim Jun-ho's mother opened a card tucked inside a flower basket, began tearing up immediately, and said, "You finally came. You're here." Kim Ji-min, watching the footage back on set, cried along with her.

Couvade syndrome and a gender reveal

By 13 weeks into the pregnancy, Kim Jun-ho had taken on a notably active role at home: reading fairy tales aloud beside his wife on the sofa and preparing meals, including a monkfish dish to accommodate her heightened craving for spicy food. The episode then disclosed something unexpected. Kim Jun-ho has been experiencing couvade syndrome, a condition in which a partner develops physical symptoms that mirror those of pregnancy, for the past month. While Kim Ji-min is managing food cravings, it is Kim Jun-ho who has been dealing with nausea.

Couvade syndrome is not widely recognized as a formal diagnosis, but reported cases are more common than general awareness of the condition suggests. For a 52-year-old first-time father who spent months invested in the outcome of IVF, the psychosomatic dimension is not difficult to understand.

The episode also included a gender reveal segment: the baby, nicknamed Durub, is a boy.

A lighter subplot involved Han Da-gam, a cast member who became pregnant naturally at 47 and has spoken openly about the experience. Before Kim Ji-min's successful IVF cycle, Han Da-gam had visited the couple and, in a gesture meant to share good fortune, passed along a pair of underwear worn by her husband. The couple called Han Da-gam after confirming the pregnancy to thank her. Kim Jun-ho admitted on the call that he had actually been wearing the underwear. He then joked about listing them on a secondhand platform, adding that singer Kim Jong-min, who is also trying to conceive, might benefit from them next. Kim Ji-min later confessed she had quietly sniffed the underwear when she received it to determine whether they had really been worn, a confession that left even her mildly embarrassed.