“I was so excited waiting for Mr. Choi Bool-am” ... Kim Hye-ja’s past remarks as one half of the “22-year couple” revisited

[Financial News] Following the death of actor Choi Bool-am (born Choi Young-han), Kim Hye-ja’s past remarks are drawing renewed attention. The two actors played a married couple for 22 years in the drama “Country Diaries.”
Choi Bool-am died on the 29th while receiving inpatient treatment at a hospital in Seoul’s Gangseo-gu district. He was 87. He had been undergoing rehabilitation after surgery for a herniated disc in March last year, but his health is said to have deteriorated sharply recently.
As tributes pour in from all walks of life following the death of the late actor, known as the godfather of South Korean entertainment and called the “Nation’s Father,” an episode of the 2023 tvN Story show “People at the Chairman’s House” in which Kim Hye-ja reunited with Choi Bool-am has come back into the spotlight.
Recalling Choi Bool-am, with whom she played a married couple in “Country Diaries,” Kim Hye-ja said at the time, “Mr. Choi Bool-am was my husband, and everything was good.” She added, “I think I’d be happy to see him when we meet, and I think I’d really miss him when I saw him. It’s like meeting someone I miss.”
On the show, Kim Hye-ja reunited with Choi Bool-am for the first time in 21 years. “I was so excited waiting for Mr. Choi Bool-am. It really felt like meeting an old friend,” she said, adding, “I was so happy to see him that I almost cried.” She also said, “It brought back the years we spent together. He’s truly an old friend,” and added, “We met in our twenties and acted in plays together. He’s like a teacher who taught me.”
Choi Bool-am starred opposite actor Kim Hye-ja as a married couple in “Country Diaries” for 22 years, giving such natural performances that viewers could mistake them for a real-life couple and establishing himself as the “Nation’s Father.” The late actor’s wake was set up at the funeral hall of Asan Medical Center at 9 a.m. on the 30th. His survivors include his wife, Kim Min-ja, his son, Dong-nyeok, and his daughter, Dong-bi.

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