Singer Kim Do-hyang recalls pain of father's serial affairs, meeting '50 stepmothers'

Singer Kim Do-hyang, 81, who has performed for 57 years, revealed a painful family history, saying his family long suffered because of his father's frequent affairs during his childhood.

MBN's documentary program "Teukjong Sesang" aired its 756th episode Thursday, depicting the daily life of Kim, who has spent 50 years practicing meditation as a way to find inner peace and now works as a meditation musician.

That day, Kim explained why he meditates. "I had a lot of anger because of my family environment when I was young," he said. "After I started meditating a lot, I stopped getting angry."

Kim recalled his father, an educator who struck it big running a "hagwon," a private after-school academy. "I hated my father. His job was something like a professor or teacher, and he opened a hagwon and made a fortune," he said. "He made good money, but he never came home."

"He introduced about 50 different people to me, saying, 'This is your mother,'" Kim went on to say. "He kept changing women that quickly while leading that kind of life outside the home, and my mother, in her suffering, would cry alone every night."

"I slept in the same room as my mother, so how could I sleep while she was crying?" Kim said, his eyes welling up with tears. "That went on for a very long time."

He debuted in 1970 with the folk duo Two Koreans and went on to create roughly 4,000 commercial jingles. He also produced hit songs such as "Babocheoreom Sarassgunyo" ("I Lived Like a Fool") and "Byeogodong" ("Parasol Tree"). But even after achieving major success as a singer, the conflict between father and son did not end.

Kim revealed that he ultimately cut ties with his father. "I had a hit as a singer. My father, who had plenty of money himself, asked me, 'Will you pay for my wedding?'" That made me cry a lot. After that, I never saw my father again. So when it comes to my mother, I just feel heartbroken."

Although he lived estranged from his father for many years afterward, his wife tracked down his father after they married. She discovered that he was suffering from paralysis at the time and persuaded his mother, who had firmly opposed the idea, to let the family live together again.

"My wife is an angel to me. She persuaded my mother to agree to live together. She told her, 'You have to live life with love — living with anger isn't really living.' That changed the focus of my life. The direction of my music inevitably changed too," Kim said, expressing his gratitude to his wife.

Toward the end of the broadcast, Kim visited his parents' grave and finally broke down in the tears he had been holding back.

"My mother passed away in 2002, and my father had passed away much earlier, but we later brought him here," he said. "My wife and I forced them to be buried together." He added that he hoped his parents would reconcile even in the afterlife.

"Whether things were good or bad between parents and children, or between husband and wife, seems to mean nothing in the end," he went on to say. "Now that we are apart, I just feel filled with longing. I think the two of them must feel the same way."