Musical actor Choi Jung Won has revealed he performed on the very day his mother passed away in 2024, honoring her long-held wish.
Choi shared the story during the October 19 episode of tvN Story’s variety show “Namgyeoseo Mwohage,” where he appeared alongside actress Kim Sung Ryung. Host Lee Young Ja said, “We are all children who no longer have our mothers.”
Choi said his mother had been living with Parkinson’s disease. After visiting her one evening, he traveled to the countryside for a performance. The next morning, his brother called to say their mother had died. With no understudy available for another production he was in at the time, “Hades,” he went ahead and performed that night in “Chicago.”
His mother had always told him, “Even if I die, perform if you have a show.” True to her wish, he took the stage. “I actually performed on the very day she passed away. It went surprisingly peacefully,” he said through tears, crying while introducing his fellow cast members at the end — “a farewell performance.”
Kim Sung Ryung also opened up about losing her mother earlier this year. “With my father gone and my mother now gone too, I feel completely orphaned,” she said. Watching an old broadcast she had appeared in with her mother, she teared up, remembering her as affectionate and sharp — “I trusted her judgment more than anyone’s.”
The stories were reported by Star News. Neither actor’s agency has issued an additional statement.
