Queen of Tears: Parallels between the Netflix Drama and Samsung Heiress’s Marriage are uncanny

Queen of Tears: Queen of Tears, the latest addition to Netflix’s K-drama watch list, has been in the headlines for ranking as the most buzzworthy drama. The show is out with 2 episodes only but looks like its fresh plot is already winning many (korean) hearts. The story of Baek Hyun Woo and Hong Hae navigating the highs and lows of their love and life after marriage has raised speculations if the series is inspired by the real-life story of tech giant, Samsung’s heiress Lee Boo Jin, and her ex-husband, Lim Woo Jae.

Is ‘Queen of Tears’ inspired by Samsung Heiress’s Marriage?

Now, the makers of the show have not confirmed any chances of the series to be inspired by the life of Lee Boo Jin, and her ex-husband, Lim Woo Jae. However, the uncanny similarities between the Netflix series and the heiress’s life after marriage are astonishing.

The show brings in novelty by walking away from the everyday rom-com by portraying the life of two married couples as it unfolds after marriage. The drastic distance in the socio-economic background of the main lead adds another layer of complexity to the relationship, and this is where the first instance of resemblance gets vivid.

In the show, Hong Hae-in played by Kim Ji Won is a third-generation heiress of Queen Group conglomerates who falls in love with Baek Hyun Woo (Kim Soo-hyun), a lawyer by profession and a man coming from a contrasting socio-economic background than her partner. The heiress of Samsung Lee Boo Jin, and her husband mirror the story of her husband Lim Woo Jae who was an employee at Samsung. The parallels go to the extent of struggles in marriage, leading to separation and a turbulent legal battle.       

Similarities between the “Queen of Tears” and Samsung’s heiress Lee Boo Jin

Like Ji Won’s character, the heiress worked under the guise of an intern in her own company when she met Lim Woo Jae. The men in reel and real life were unversed in the affluent background of the woman. Their love story and later wedding in 1999 garnered national attention, and also what came after that. The marriage started crumbling down leading to Lee filing for divorce in 2014, and taking sole custody of their son. Lee’s struggle with settling into Lim’s family has been the center of the conflict. The pressure from her family even made him contemplate suicide like in the series Hyun Woo does. 

Despite the similar themes of class differences, the difficult aftermath of marriage, the crumbling of relations under familial pressure, and the final falling apart in real life, the reel life story promises themes of resilience and reconciliation after mutual efforts. What lies ahead is surely difficult to pin yet as only two episodes have been out so far, however, these uncanny similarities between the real and reel story of the heiress and her turbulent marriage are surely noteworthy.