Beloved Idol Admits To Parental Abandonment Amid Debilitating Debt

WJSN’s Dayoung has left fans heartbroken after opening up about her family history.

Dayoung | @dayoungism/Instagram

On the May 23 (KST) broadcast of the MBC variety show, Point of Omniscient Interfere, Dayoung appeared as a guest and talked candidly about her family background. The topic started with Dayoung’s manager, Kim Seong Eun, talking about how she deeply sympathized with the idol for all the struggles she had been through. A native of Jeju Island, Dayoung had to live alone in a goshiwon (a single room accommodation) at the age of 13 while appearing on the audition program, K-pop Star.

Dayoung had previously revealed on a variety show that her parents had gotten divorced when she was eight years old. Her father had left her and her mother in crippling debt of around ₩1.20 billion KRW (about $791,000 USD), which plunged the mother-daughter into extreme financial strain.

Around that time, her family was also affected by a devastating typhoon. Dayoung recalled scooping out floodwater using a plastic bowl when she was just 10 years old, leaving the host extremely moved.

During her MBC appearance, Dayoung recounted that experience once again, mentioning that it was probably during Typhoon Nari, the 2007 calamity that hit wreaked havoc across South Korea. The idol recalled floodwater filling up inside her mother’s shop up to her waist, to a point where she actually had to swim. While she, in her young innocence, remarked about how their shop looked like a water park, Dayoung’s mother stood beside her, weeping. Seeing her mother cry for the first time in her life, she was left jolted.

Dayoung described her mother as a strong woman who was constantly working two to three jobs simultaneously to keep her family afloat.

She ran a hagfish restaurant and whenever she had a spare moment, she would sell insurance or take on some other work. I used to wonder if it wasn’t too exhausting for her, given how much she took upon herself, but she never once complained that she was tired.

— Dayoung

Her mother instead instilled the belief in her that women from Jeju Island are tough and that she needed to strengthen her spirits as well. “That was the moment I truly grasped the gravity of our situation,” Dayoung admitted, adding that she suddenly matured overnight.

Dayoung’s story has deeply touched netizens, drawing sympathy toward her and backlash toward her father.

It's really sad that when discussing these abuses we have to center the victim's resilience and not the fact that men are 🗑️ https://t.co/aVCwOqthVT

— elie / ella / ᜁᜎ (@misty_aur0ra) May 26, 2026

and people still have the nerve to say "not all men" like what…. https://t.co/yOVneSlxFh pic.twitter.com/SvnpqVzNNX

— cela¹² (@zibai_xcx) May 26, 2026

She's a survivor https://t.co/vxMyOkLr26

— 𝔖𝖂Ɐ𝕻𝔭Ɐ𝔫𝖙𝔰𝖂𝔦𝖙𝔥𝕸𝔢🇰🇵🇦🇴 (@PuppyGxd4k) May 26, 2026