Debate among netizens continues over actress Hwang Jung-eum's daily life.
Hwang Jung-eum recently uploaded a video titled "A day of home cooking with simple braised short ribs & tonic water kkakdugi" to her YouTube channel.
The video captured Hwang Jung-eum making braised short ribs and kkakdugi and her daily life with her children. In particular, attention was drawn to a scene in which her eldest son called Lee Young-don, whom Hwang Jung-eum divorced, to use the computer. It drew attention that Hwang Jung-eum communicates freely with her ex-husband for the upbringing of their sons even after the divorce.
However, a week after the video was released, netizens turned their attention elsewhere. Netizens expressed disappointment in her home education after seeing the eldest son insist on eating instant noodles even though his mother was cooking, refuse to give up, and have meals brought to him by Hwang Jung-eum because he was using the computer.
Also, when a pet dog in the yard was spotted during Hwang Jung-eum's cooking, questions were raised about the dogs' living conditions. Netizens worried about the health of a dog kept outdoors in hot weather and criticized Hwang Jung-eum's treatment of her pets.
But some say their concerns about Hwang Jung-eum are unfair attacks. They argue that raising questions about family education based on a child's behavior is an overinterpretation and crossing a line, and that just because a pet appears outdoors in the video does not mean it lives only outdoors.
The controversy surrounding Hwang Jung-eum brings to mind her free toy giveaway. Hwang Jung-eum, who was keeping a low profile after operating an unregistered one-person agency and being implicated in an embezzlement case involving about 4.3 billion won, faced criticism earlier this year when toys in a goodwill giveaway were shown placed on the floor among items that looked like discarded furniture. Hwang Jung-eum said, "I intended to give them away for a good cause, but because the photos were taken and posted hastily in an unorganized state, there was a lot of misunderstanding. Still, the people who came in person spoke kindly and used them well, so it ended well."
Having paused activities amid successive controversies such as divorce and embezzlement and only recently resumed, Hwang Jung-eum is inevitably sensitive to such gossip. It is worth watching how Hwang Jung-eum will respond to the sudden controversy, or whether she will issue a statement in the future.
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