Son Dam-bi Made Up Her Mind to Marry in 5 Days. The Full Story.

Singer and actress Son Dam-bi has always been known for her boldness — onstage and off. So when she appeared on TV CHOSUN's food travel show Huh Young-man's Baekban Journey (식객 허영만의 백반기행) on March 29, 2026, and said of her marriage, "I opened my eyes and we were already married," nobody in the audience quite knew whether to laugh or cry. They ended up doing both.

The line captures something real about Son Dam-bi and Lee Kyu-hyuk's love story — a story that includes a first romance in 2011, a decade of separation, a single night of conversation that changed everything, and a decision to get married made within five days of seeing each other again. It is, in every structural sense, the kind of love story that gets turned into a drama. The difference is that this one actually happened.

How It Started: A TV Show, a Skating Rink, and an Instant Connection

Son Dam-bi and Lee Kyu-hyuk first met in 2011 on Kiss and Cry, an SBS variety program where celebrities trained in figure skating. Lee Kyu-hyuk was already a legendary figure in Korean sports — a speed skating champion who had competed in multiple Winter Olympics between 1994 and 2010. She was a pop star at the height of her fame, known for bold performances and hit songs like "Saturday Night" and "Crazy."

Their connection was immediate and, by Son Dam-bi's own description, intense. Lee Kyu-hyuk later said he didn't initially think of her as a typical celebrity — she felt more like "a friend I was comfortable with." They exchanged numbers. A relationship followed. Son Dam-bi has called it "a fiery, spectacle-like love" — the kind that burns bright and fast.

It didn't last. Distance became the fracture point. When Lee Kyu-hyuk left for speed skating training, Son Dam-bi would miss him intensely. He, in turn, felt she didn't fully respect the demands of his athletic career. The relationship ended around 2012, though Son Dam-bi would later say something that speaks to how it ended: "He's the first ex-boyfriend I ever parted from without bad feelings."

Ten Years, One Restaurant, One Conversation Until Dawn

For approximately a decade, they went their separate ways entirely. Son Dam-bi continued her career as a singer and actress. Lee Kyu-hyuk retired from competitive skating and opened a restaurant. They were not in contact.

In 2021, Son Dam-bi was going through a difficult period — struggling emotionally, having lost a significant amount of weight. A mutual acquaintance, aware of how she was feeling, suggested she visit Lee Kyu-hyuk's restaurant. He had heard she was struggling and wanted to be there for her.

She went. They sat down. And they talked until 6 in the morning.

Lee Kyu-hyuk later described that night with a simplicity that said everything: "That day changed our fate." Son Dam-bi, for her part, was more immediate in how she described the moment she saw him: "I thought — I'm going to marry this man."

Not someday. Right then.

Five Days to a Decision

What makes the story particularly striking is that Son Dam-bi had, for years, identified as a 비혼주의자 — someone fundamentally opposed to marriage. She was vocal about it. The idea of formal partnership had never appealed to her in the way it seemed to appeal to everyone around her.

And then, within five days of reconnecting with Lee Kyu-hyuk, she decided to marry him.

In retrospect, she offered a theory about why it worked the second time around. "If we had married when we were young, we probably would have divorced," she said. The version of her that met him in 2011 was different from the version that walked into his restaurant in 2021. The same, she implied, was true of him. Timing — the thing that had worked against them in their twenties — had finally caught up.

Their engagement was announced in January 2022. They married on May 13, 2022 — roughly five months after rekindling, which is fast by any standard, and almost incomprehensibly fast for someone who had said marriage was never for her.

The IVF Journey and the Daughter Who Arrived in April 2025

After marrying, Son Dam-bi and Lee Kyu-hyuk began the process of trying to conceive. What followed was not straightforward. The couple went through eight months of IVF treatment, with the pregnancy succeeding on the second attempt. Son Dam-bi has spoken openly about how physically demanding the process was — a candidness that many women going through similar experiences found genuinely meaningful.

Their daughter, Hae-i (해이), was born in April 2025. Son Dam-bi, who has never been one to soften her descriptions of anything, called herself a "brazen ajumma" post-birth and was characteristically direct about the stamina motherhood requires. "Childcare," she said, "is serious physical work." Lee Kyu-hyuk, a former elite athlete, has reportedly earned some gentle public teasing from his wife about his parenting habits — a dynamic that has come across as warm and lived-in rather than critical.

What She Said on 백반기행 This Week

Son Dam-bi's appearance on Huh Young-man's Baekban Journey, which aired March 29, 2026, brought the love story back into public conversation. The show's format — exploring traditional Korean home-style meals across Seoul with celebrity guests — tends to draw out candid moments, and Son Dam-bi delivered.

Between bites and sidewalk walks, she returned to the same story she has told before, but with the particular ease of someone who has finally stopped being surprised by her own life. The woman who said she'd never marry. The restaurant she walked into during a hard stretch. The morning they talked until dawn. The five-day decision. The wedding. The daughter.

"I opened my eyes and we were already married," she said again — and this time, it didn't sound like disbelief. It sounded like gratitude.

Why This Story Resonates the Way It Does

Son Dam-bi's transformation from outspoken non-marriage advocate to wife and mother within three years is, on the surface, easy to read as ironic. But the way she tells the story — and the consistency with which she returns to the same details, the same quiet awe — suggests something more complicated than a change of mind. It reads more like someone who had simply never found the right argument for something she was always capable of.

Lee Kyu-hyuk's line about their reunion — "That day changed our fate" — has stayed with fans partly because it sounds like something from a script and partly because it clearly isn't. He said it matter-of-factly, the way people describe things that are simply, undeniably true. The couple's story has been shared and reshared across Korean entertainment communities not for its glamour but for something harder to manufacture: the sense that it is, stubbornly and improbably, real.