Doctor-turned-CEO Yeo Esther says her worst premonition came true: one day after warning her husband Hong Hye-geol to be careful on Facebook, his public criticism of the film ‘암살자(들)’ ignited a backlash so intense that it flooded her company’s website with hate comments.
According to a Sports Seoul report published October 10, the couple aired the fallout in a YouTube video titled ‘여홍부부 별거위기 vlog’ (Yeo-Hong Couple Separation-Crisis Vlog), uploaded on October 9. The two go out on a date, but the mood is anything but light.
Yeo Esther explained that Hong had posted on Facebook the previous month, calling the film “uncomfortable” and questioning whether it was right to mock a deceased figure recognized by half the country with what he described as a forced conspiracy theory while the bereaved family is still alive.
The backlash quickly spilled onto Yeo Esther. “Our company’s internet was plastered with hate comments,” she said. “Our employees couldn’t do their other work and just deleted them.” She asked Hong for a promise it would not happen again, but he only repeated “I’m sorry.”
Things escalated. Yeo Esther declared she would stop supporting “비온뒤,” prompting Hong to snap back that threatening him with money was “dirty.” She even floated selling her company so he could write freely, but Hong reportedly replied, “Would selling the company fix it? This setup has to continue for at least five more years.” Stung, Yeo Esther said it felt like he now saw her only as “a woman who makes money,” adding that incidents like this happen “once or twice every year.”
