Meet Honey Lee, the multitalented Korean star: from winning Miss Korea and awards for K-dramas like One The Woman, to performing at the Winter Olympics and expecting her first child
- The One The Woman actress shocked fans late last year when she married a non-celebrity office worker just a year after her split with actor Yoon Kye-sang
- Lee started in beauty pageants – becoming Korea’s first Miss Grand Slam – before musicals, film and TV, and she also plays the traditional gayageum
Lee Hanee, better known as the award-winning Korean actress Honey Lee, is set to take a break from filming this year after announcing that she is pregnant with her first child. The happy news came just months after fans were wowed by her shock wedding to an office worker at the end of last year.
Lee is clearly a master of keeping her private life just that, but how well do you know the multi-hyphenate talent?
She started in beauty pageants
Lee was crowned Miss Korea in 2006 before wowing the international audience and her fans at the prestigious Miss Universe contest in 2007 with her unconventional beauty, can-do attitude and confidence. She finished as the third runner-up in the competition, but was later named the first Korean beauty to win the Miss Grand Slam title.
Leveraging her overwhelming fame and media attention, Lee set foot into the alluring but overly competitive K-biz as a musician and actress, and steadily proved that she is not only charming, but also brilliantly talented.
She got her big break in musicals
Following her success in beauty pageants, Lee took her first acting roles in the musicals Legally Blonde, Polaroid and Chicago. After that, she was cast for supporting roles in television shows such as The Partner and Pasta, launching her career further as an actress.
She had to battle strict beauty standards
At the beginning, Lee struggled to find her place in the Korean entertainment industry, as she told YouTube series MMTG last year.
