Noel’s Kang Kyun-sung and his wife, actress Yoo Ha-jin, are joining SBS’s long-running couple variety show ‘Same Bed, Different Dreams 2 — You Are My Destiny’ as the program’s newest ‘destined couple,’ less than a month after the pair tied the knot on October 30.
According to an exclusive report by OSEN on November 12, Kang and Yoo will appear together on the show, with their episodes scheduled to air in December. The report says the newlyweds plan to share footage from their wedding as well as their sweet newlywed daily life with viewers, marking their first joint appearance as a married couple.
‘Same Bed, Different Dreams 2,’ which has aired on SBS since 2017, follows couples from all walks of life as cameras observe their everyday routines from both the husband’s and the wife’s perspectives, exploring what it means to meet one’s destined other half. The show airs on Tuesday nights at 10:40 p.m., hosted by Kim Gu-ra, Seo Jang-hoon and Kim Sook, and has featured everyone from couples about to marry to pairs who have spent decades together. The program has been adding new couples in quick succession: actor Lee Yoo-jin and his fiancee Cha Kyung-eun joined earlier this month, with their first episode airing November 10 ahead of their November 14 wedding.
The casting comes at the peak of public interest in the couple’s whirlwind romance. Kang, 45, and Yoo, 31, first met nine years ago and briefly dated, but he cut off contact, uneasy about the 14-year age gap. A mutual acquaintance reintroduced them this February, and the two began dating in mid-February, deciding to marry after only about eight months together. Kang revealed the full story on the October 14 episode of MBC’s ‘Radio Star,’ where he also addressed the question many viewers had been asking about the rushed timeline.
On the show, Kang repeated his long-held stance on waiting until marriage, saying of the wedding’s speed: ‘Many people hear how fast we set the wedding date and ask if it’s a shotgun wedding. We have no experience. We have not been intimate with each other.’ He added that the choice was mutual, saying Yoo shares his thinking and that he had simply found someone with whom he felt he could ‘grow together.’
The couple married on October 30 at a 7 p.m. ceremony in Seoul, with Kang’s Noel bandmates performing the group’s hit ‘Cheonghon’ (Proposal) as the congratulatory song. Broadcaster Jang Sung-gyu marked the day on social media, calling Kang the ‘icon of premarital chastity’ and wishing the couple well — a nickname Kang earned over years of speaking candidly on variety shows about his decision to wait until marriage.
Kang debuted in 2002 as a member of vocal group Noel, known for ballad hits including ‘Cheonghon,’ ‘Butjabgo Do’ (Even If I Hold On) and ‘Jeonbu Neoyeotda’ (It Was All You). Yoo, a former girl-group trainee whose idol debut never materialized, made her acting debut in the 2019 MBC drama ‘One Spring Night’ and has since appeared in the drama ‘Welcome’ and the stage play ‘Rental Apartment.’
The variety show casting is Kang’s second piece of good news since the wedding. On November 2, his agency S27M Entertainment announced he will return to the musical stage in the concert musical ‘The Mission: K,’ which opens in January 2027, playing Severance — the figure who donated a fortune to found a hospital — in a production based on the true stories behind modern Korean medicine and education. The musical runs from January 13 to 17 at the Sejong Center Grand Theater in Seoul. The new SBS gig also brings Kang back to the ‘Same Bed, Different Dreams’ franchise: he previously appeared as a guest on the show’s first season in 2015, eleven years before returning as a newlywed husband.
No official statement from SBS or Kang’s agency had been released at the time of publication, beyond the OSEN report. With the couple’s December episodes set to open with their wedding footage, viewers will get their first look at married life for one of the year’s most talked-about newlywed couples — just as Kang prepares to take the stage again in January.
