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https://scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3027585/k-dramas-song-song-couple-divorce-and-4-other-celebrity News & Trends
K-drama’s Song-Song Couple divorce and 4 other celebrity break-ups that showed us fame does not guarantee a happy marriage
These power couples showed how beautiful love could be – only to drown in a despair that no K-drama could ever hope to match
South Korean celebrities Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo in happier times. Photo: Yonhap via Reuters
For those of us who get immersed in the lives of celebrities, there is often no greater shock than when our favourite power couple calls it quits.
We’re talking about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Chris Pratt and Anna Faris, Amber Heard and Johnny Depp or Guy Ritchie and Madonna, to name just a few of the heartbreaking announcements of yesteryear.
This year, we have a new list to add to the collection of couples that have made us lose faith in love. It seems fame, fans and a perfect Instagram feed cannot guarantee a happy marriage.
Haven’t we heard it all before, you might ask? Of course, Hollywood break-ups are a dime a dozen and yet, we still weren’t prepared for 2019’s cacophony of crazed Cupid-killings.
So grab the tissues and supersized cartons of ice cream, line up the romcoms – and let’s get started.
Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo
Song-Song couple
Starting with our South Korean neighbours, Song Hye-kyo and Song Joong-ki showed how beautiful love could be – only to drown in a despair that no K-drama could ever hope to match.
The two actors were a couple so perfect for each other, or so we thought, that they even had matching surnames for their relationship name, “Song Song”. The stars met on the set of television drama series Descendants of the Sun in 2017, where Song Joong-ki played a dashing captain in a South Korean special forces unit, and Song Hye-kyo was cast as Dr Kang Mo-yeon, his “love-at-first-sight” interest.
How dare they ruin this beautiful fantasy because of irreconcilable differences in real life?
Twenty months after their picture-perfect wedding ceremony at Shilla hotel in Seoul, the couple announced in a press release that Song-Song had sung its last song.
“We hope that we will be able to figure things out smoothly, rather than criticising each other for our faults,” said Song Joong-ki in the official announcement, “Even though it is difficult to discuss the details of the divorce, I hope to return with good work after I overcome all the hurt in my heart.”
Fan Bingbing and Li Chen
Fan Bingbing (left) and Li Chen. Photo: Weibo
It’s been almost three months since Fan Bingbing and Li Chen split up, but we’re still hurting. So is Li Chen, it seems, who was recently spotted looking much slimmer in a Weibo photo with popular Chinese host Xie Na.
Chinese actress Fan announced on her Weibo account on June 27 – just hours after Song-Song’s divorce statement – that she and her fiancé had ended their four-year relationship.
The actress wrote on Weibo, “In one’s lifetime, there are always a lot of parting and goodbyes. Thank you for everything you have given [me] – the support and love – along the way. We will not be an ‘us’ any more, but we are still us.”
Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth
Liam Hemsworth (left) and Miley Cyrus. Photo: AP Photo
How dare you toy with our emotions like this, Cyrus? You came in like a wrecking ball with this separation, posting photos of a glamorous getaway in Italy with Kaitlynn Carter before Liam Hemsworth had to make the separation official on his own Instagram.
After less than eight months of marriage, Hemsworth posted on August 13 with an ominous, brooding photo of a sunset: “Just a quick note to say that Miley and I have recently separated and I wish her nothing but health and happiness going forward. This is a private matter and I have not made, nor will I be making, any comments to any journalists or media outlets.”
That wasn’t all. Soon afterwards, Cyrus released the break-up song, Slide Away, much like Ariana Grande did with Thank U, Next after ending her engagement with Pete Davidson in 2018. The lyrics alluded to Hemsworth possibly having a drug and alcohol problem that had led to their separation.
Koo Hye-sun and Ahn Jae-hyun
Koo Hye-sun (left) and Ahn Jae-hyun in a scene from the 2017 tvN show Newlyweds Diary.
Speaking of dirty laundry, South Korean stars Koo Hye-sun and Ahn Jae-hyun also experienced a breakdown of their three-year marriage with a public airing of their discontentment.
Ahn posted a video that went viral on social media, showing the actor on his 32nd birthday alone at a restaurant. The video was considered a response to his wife’s claims – which she also posted on social media – that Ahn had left his wife to celebrate his birthday alone.
In an Instagram post in August, the South Korean actress announced that she and her husband would be divorcing: “I want to stay together, while my husband who has reached a stage of ennui, wants [a] divorce.”
Adele and Simon Konecki
The last couple on our list sent us rolling into the deepest depths of the tissue box, not simply because they were together for seven years, but because we cannot conceive how we’ll ever be able to handle Adele’s next album.
In her Vanity Fair cover story in 2016, the singer-songwriter opened up about her relationship with Simon Konecki, stating “I have no desire to be with anyone in show business, because we all have egos. He’s not threatened by any stage of my life that I’m going for, and that’s an amazing thing. It’s the most serious relationship I’ve ever been in; we’ve got a child together and we live together.”
But, much like their relatively private relationship, their statement to the Associated Press did not divulge the details of their break-up, only noting that the couple were “committed to raising their son together lovingly”.