After 2 Hours in Line, Kwon Sang-woo's Son Finally Drives Out of Fort Lee

Actor Kwon Sang-woo and his wife, YouTuber Son Tae-young, revealed on September 13 that their 17-year-old son Rookhee had obtained his US driver's license and taken his car out alone for the first time. The update came through Son Tae-young's YouTube channel, Mrs. New Jersey, during a couples outing vlog that also included a BTS concert stop.

Kwon described the moment with a mix of pride and mild surprise. "As soon as he got his license, his friends gathered and he went out driving for the first time," he said. "Three of them each drove their own cars and hung out in Fort Lee." The detail carries a specific kind of New Jersey texture: Fort Lee, just across the George Washington Bridge, is a familiar gathering point for Korean-American families in the area, and for three teenagers to each show up in their own car says something about how settled this community is.

The license, the car, and the curfew

Son Tae-young filled in the logistics of the test itself, noting that the actual driving exam was the easy part. "We heard the driving test was pretty straightforward," she said. "They let you take your time with parking." What took longer was the bureaucratic end: two hours in line to collect the permit paperwork after the test was done.

Kwon added that Rookhee's license comes with a curfew built in by New Jersey law. "He can only drive from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. for now," he said. "Once it's a little past ten, he can't drive." New Jersey's graduated driver licensing system restricts unsupervised nighttime driving for drivers under 18, a detail the family is navigating in real time.

The car itself had been acquired back in April, when Son Tae-young bought Rookhee a used Jeep Wrangler four-door ahead of him getting his license. Used Wrangler four-doors in that trim range typically sell in Korea for roughly 40 to 60 million won, though the family is based in the US where pricing differs. At the time, Son Tae-young explained her reasoning practically: "Even if we sell it later, Wranglers hold their value. The specs are good and the leather seats are clean."

Rookhee marked his first solo outing with a pair of texts to his parents: "Survival check" and "Parking complete." Kwon laughed at the phrasing and noted that it signals something larger. "This is the first step toward being a proper adult," he said.

Kwon also managed to turn the milestone into a joke at his wife's expense, suggesting that once Rookhee is back in school and driving himself, "Son Tae-young will finally be free."

The daughter navigating a different kind of independence

The vlog also touched on the couple's younger child, daughter Riho, who recently graduated from elementary school in the US and is, by her mother's account, firmly in the thick of adolescence.

"We're women, so we know what a girl's teenage years are like," Son Tae-young said. "It's all: 'Don't touch me. Don't talk to me.'" She described Riho as largely staying in her room, and noted a running dynamic between the siblings: the moment Riho hears her brother Rookhee's voice while coming downstairs, she turns around and goes back up. "They're both just avoiding each other now," Son Tae-young said.

Her broader point, which she directed toward fathers in the group, was that the instinct to keep joking around with a teenage daughter is usually the problem. "Girls really hate it when dads do the exact things they've asked them not to do. You could just stop, but dads keep doing it because they think it's funny." A friend in the group agreed, saying that not doing the unwanted thing matters more than any grand gesture. Kwon, reportedly looking a little chastened by this, got a laugh from everyone present.

Kwon Sang-woo and Son Tae-young married in 2008. Rookhee was born the following year, and Riho in 2015. The family relocated to New Jersey in 2019 for the children's education, and Son Tae-young has documented much of that life on her YouTube channel since.