Comedian Lee Young-ja recalls buying her fisherman father a boat after making it big

Comedian Lee Young-ja has drawn attention after revealing that she bought her father, a fisherman, a boat after she became a celebrity.

On Monday's episode of tvN STORY's "Nam-gyeoseo Mwohage," a lifestyle talk show, Lee visited a popular blue crab restaurant in Seoul's Guro Digital Complex alongside Park Se-ri and Kim Chang-ok.

Taking in the neighborhood, Lee described Guro Digital Complex as a place that "used to be a street for industrial workers but is now a mecca for office workers and a haven for great restaurants."

Lee then expressed excitement about the restaurant, saying, "It's a place that's shooting up in popularity. You'd normally have to wait three hours, but the production team pulled a number for us in advance — we're No. 42."

While waiting for the food, Park asked whether blue crabs brought back a lot of memories, and Lee opened up about her late father.

"My father used to catch blue crabs for me," Lee said. "After I became a celebrity, I bought him a boat. It wasn't that expensive." She went on to say, "My father used that boat to catch blue crabs and conch and send them to me. He even made soy-marinated crab with the blue crabs. It was his little pastime."

Lee had also mentioned her father on the same show last spring, during a visit to a webfoot octopus restaurant, saying, "My father had a small fishing boat, then a bigger one — but the bigger one went under."

Lee made her debut as a comedian through MBC's third round of special recruits in 1992. She lost her father in 2016 and her mother in 2024. When her mother passed away, Lee quietly held a private family funeral without notifying even those close to her, only making it public afterward.