Choi Yena Tearfully Reveals Why Her Parents Sold Kimbap During Her Childhood Cancer Battle

The K-pop soloist connected deeply with contestants on SBS’s new dating show, recalling the guilt she felt while watching her family struggle to pay her hospital bills.

Singer Choi Yena became emotional while revisiting one of the most difficult periods of her childhood during the premiere of SBS’s new dating reality show My Remaining Love.

The program follows young adults in their 20s and 30s who have received terminal diagnoses or survived life-threatening illnesses as they attempt to open themselves up to relationships again. Yena appears as one of the show’s studio hosts alongside actress Lee Se-young, CNBLUE’s Jung Yong-hwa and SEVENTEEN’s DK.

As the participants discussed how illness continued to affect their lives even after treatment, Yena revealed that she had also been treated for pediatric lymphoma when she was very young. “I was a childhood lymphoma patient,” she said, explaining that the contestants’ stories brought back complicated emotions from her own past.

Choi Yena SBS My Remaining Love / SBS Entertainment YouTube

“I thought I had done something wrong”

One contestant explained that they had hesitated to tell their parents about their condition because they did not want to become an additional burden on the family.

The confession immediately resonated with Yena.

She recalled seeing her parents and other family members emotionally collapse while she was undergoing treatment. Although she was only a child, she began to feel responsible for their pain.

“I felt sorry, as though I had done something wrong,” Yena said as she fought back tears.

Her comments highlighted an experience that is rarely discussed when celebrities tell stories about surviving serious illnesses: children can internalize the fear and financial pressure surrounding their treatment, even when the illness is entirely beyond their control.

Her parents sold kimbap to help cover the bills

Yena then shared the memory that stayed with her most clearly. Because her treatment created significant hospital expenses, her parents regularly went out to sell kimbap to earn money. She said she still remembers watching them leave to work while she was ill.

For international readers, kimbap is a Korean rice roll commonly filled with vegetables, egg and other ingredients. It is widely sold as an affordable, portable meal. In Yena’s story, however, it became something more personal a symbol of the exhausting work her parents took on while trying to keep their daughter alive.

Yena has previously spoken publicly about her lymphoma diagnosis and her family’s financial difficulties. A 2019 television report similarly described how her parents sold kimbap in the mornings while she underwent treatment. She later prepared the dish for them as a gesture of gratitude.

The SBS episode placed that familiar story in a new context. Instead of discussing it as an inspirational celebrity profile, Yena was responding directly to other survivors who were still dealing with fear, guilt and uncertainty.

Choi Yena Blooming Wings showcase / News 1

Illness did not end when treatment ended

The premiere also explored a question that separates My Remaining Love from conventional Korean dating programs: what happens when surviving an illness changes the way other people view someone as a potential partner?

Participants said that dating after treatment could be more difficult than the treatment itself. They faced questions not only about their current health but also about marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and whether an illness could affect their future children.

SBS describes the series as a record of young survivors confronting both the limits of life and the possibility of loving again. Its unusual format allows contestants to exchange a limited amount of “time” with one another each evening.

The concept has received contrasting responses. Some viewers have questioned whether serious illness and limited life expectancy should become the premise of an entertainment program. Others have supported the show for presenting illness, death and romance as real parts of life rather than subjects that must remain hidden.

Why Yena’s role feels different

Yena is not simply observing the participants from a studio.

Her own experience gives her an immediate understanding of the emotions they describe from worrying about family members to feeling guilty for needing care. Before the premiere, she said she hoped people carrying similar pain could comfort one another by sharing their experiences.

That connection may become one of the program’s strongest elements. Yena is widely known for her energetic and playful public image, but her tears showed the memories that exist beneath it. The scene was not only about a K-pop star overcoming childhood cancer. It was also about a child who survived while watching her parents make sacrifices she was too young to fully understand and an adult who still remembers every part of it.