Lee Sun-bin Ran Away at 17 to Debut, Then Revealed Her Nine-Year Romance

When director Jang Hang-jun admitted he had never known Lee Kwang-soo was Lee Sun-bin's boyfriend, she protested on camera: "That's a bit much. We've been together nine years." The exchange came on the first episode of SBS's new variety show Master Hang-jun, which aired on the 15th, and it opened a rare window onto how one of Korean entertainment's longest-running couples spends its time.

The show is built as a covert audition: Jang, the director, tries to cast top actors for a project while trading banter with them. The first guests were Yoo Jae-myung and Lee Sun-bin. Host Song Eun-yi noted that Lee Sun-bin had once named Lee Kwang-soo as her ideal type on Running Man, years before they became a real couple. Jang and fellow panelist Kim Poong were visibly surprised, and Lee Sun-bin looked back on the nine years as "eventful." Yoo said the two look genuinely lovely together, based on having seen them in person, and Kim added that they suit each other.

Work stays mostly off the table

Asked by Yoo whether Lee Kwang-soo had helped her become a better actor, Lee Sun-bin said they keep professional talk to a minimum, usually just offering each other an honest impression when asked. Most of their conversation, she said, is about nothing in particular: a hard day on set, or someone who made one of them angry.

She described both of them as peacemakers who tend not to speak up in the moment, which makes the debrief at home valuable. That, in her words, is often the biggest comfort.

Leaving home to get a start

The episode also covered the years before her debut. Lee Sun-bin said she left home in her second year of high school, taking money saved from part-time work and leaving a letter behind as she went from Cheonan to Seoul. To avoid being traced, she borrowed a friend's phone. She sometimes slept in jjimjilbangs (Korean bathhouses), finding places near wherever she had auditions, until she joined a newly founded agency and trained as an idol trainee.

On acting, she said she reached a point early on where roles were offered to her directly, but landing the first one was the hard part. Jang joked that the story lacked enough hardship, and she quickly insisted there had been plenty before her official debut.

She added that her last audition was for the drama 38 Task Force. To reach a wider audience, she said, she deliberately pursued an appearance on the music variety show I Can See Your Voice. Viewers assumed she had been invited, she said, but it was a plan she arranged herself, at a time when celebrities could not simply be booked and had to audition for a slot.

For a couple that has kept a low public profile for most of nearly a decade, the broader context is notable: the details they chose to share were small and domestic, not promotional.