After being legally cleared of prostitution solicitation and sexual assault, FTISLAND‘s Minhwan has been trying to get his reputation back with rather ridiculous excuses for his behavior amidst his dispute with ex-wife Yulhee. That took another hit last month when he was exposed for admitting to police he visited adult entertainment facilities.
Apparently, Minhwan’s response to the continued backlash was to make his case to Dispatch, in which he blames the divorce on Yulhee. It’s a lengthy article and provides text exchanges (read in full here), but essentially Minhwan claims she was the root of their conflicts, which started with her “running away” and “sleeping all day”.
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In August 2021, Minhwan told his manager he was doing to divorce Yulhee after they had a big fight, but the manager seemed more understanding of her than he did, and they eventually reconciled.
Choi Minhwan (C): I think I’m going to divorce
[…]
Manager (M): Is this April’s Fools?
C: I don’t know, but this is true ㅋㅋ It’s real
M: Why are you divorcing? Did you guys fight?
C: Yeah. We had a big fight and she left the house
M: You have 3 kids, what are you talking about? Why are you fighting?
C: No but I fought with her because she sleeps all the time. I don’t get her. How can you sleep all day long…
M: Probably because childcare is hard
C: I see her do this all the time, what’s so hard about childcare? She never changed a single diaper, she doesn’t feed the kids, she doesn’t care about them
M: It would be hard for her to desire to sleep, she’s probably taking care of the kids when you’re not there no? It’s not right to fight if it’s just because she sleeps a bit much
C: I’m home everyday ㅋ Seriously I’m telling you she sleeps all day
M: That’s only recently though, you discharged only recently
C: Even so, I work at 8am and come back at 4pm
M: She must be working once you leave for work. And she’s young, she probably wants to hang out but she can’t. She’s probably having a hard time, and she can’t even go out because it’s COVID
C: The babies nap for 4 hours intervals. Ugh I don’t know this will drive me crazy. I can’t do this…
M: There are so many family members, so she can’t go out and it must be tough for her. You sleep too, but what would you say if she complained about that? It’s hard. Why are you talking about divorce? Apologize quickly and go get her, go with your mom
M: No but you should sleep with moderation. I’m telling you she sleeps for 18 hours. We were fighting yesterday and she suddenly took [the eldest] and left
C: She must be tired. She should be taking some nutritional supplements. What are you guys going to do if you fight? Go get her fast
M: Ugh f*ck this is not the issue…ㅋ
C: You can’t divorce, just hold back
M: I really need to prepare for divorce
As many have already pointed out, that is indeed not normal (assuming he’s even telling the truth), but it sounds like postpartum depression due to having three kids in 18 months, and it’s a health concern rather than a reason to ditch his wife. Also, if my dad or mom ever said anything like “what’s so hard about childcare” to each other after a long day of taking care of me and my sister, they might’ve killed one another.
Anyway, Minhwan then talks about visiting an establishment in 2022 that caused conflict. He describes it as a karaoke bar, and when pressed about what he meant when he asked about women, he said it was only because there were no rooms available at the karaoke bar. He insists the incident was not the reason for their divorce because she forgave him and never brought it up.
Choi Min Hwan emphasized that visiting the establishment was not the reason for their divorce. Choi Min Hwan explained, “When we agreed on the terms of our divorce, that issue was never even brought up. The main reason was our inability to bridge the gap in our lifestyles. So why is she suddenly bringing up the establishment issue as the cause of the divorce and demanding alimony?”
He’s either comically naive or just acting like it in some cynical ploy to appeal to the public. Like for sure, man, just cause she doesn’t wanna bring up you (allegedly) banging prostitutes, it means she didn’t care much. Definitely.
Later, in August 2023, Minhwan says her sleeping a lot and running away again caused issues which lead to them living separately in September. He says she has only visited the kids 15 times in 13 months since then, and that she’s not the primary caregiver, he is.
Speaking of that dispute about custody, Minhwan then complained about what Yulhee wants in the new divorce terms and says he can’t meet the demands.
Choi Min Hwan explained to Dispatch that Yulhee then overturned the agreed divorce terms, demanding 100 million KRW (approximately 68,142 USD) in alimony and 1 billion KRW (approximately 682,000 USD) in property division. She also requested custody of their children, demanding child support payments until the kids reached adulthood.
Choi Min Hwan has firmly stated that he “absolutely” cannot meet Yulhee’s demands. From his perspective, Yul Hee was the decisive cause of their divorce, which had already been finalized.
Dispatch reached out to Yulhee’s side, but they didn’t respond, which was probably the right move given how this went for Minhwan.
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Not that there was really any reason to believe Minhwan’s side to begin with, but this interview certainly doesn’t help his case. He comes off like an uncaring husband that wanted his wife to be a maid and nanny, and his bewilderment about why she “changed her mind” about the (alleged) prostitution stuff just shows how out of touch he is with reality. He seems to believe because that was “settled” that it’s a non-issue or something, but of course it impacted their relationship.
The outcome of this interview was mostly that it felt like Yulhee needed help with postpartum depression after the twins were born, and it took until recently for her to recover from that since he only piled onto her struggles at the time. That’s not currently going over well with anybody in terms of the general public.
Honestly though, despite all this, it’s probably best if he doesn’t get “cancelled” and is allowed to continue in FTISLAND since the kids will need the money. Though it’d be hard to blame any fans for turning their backs on him given what he’s inflicting on himself at this point.