Ever since its premiere on August 15, 2024 (KST), JTBC‘s new dating show, Last Love, has gained tremendous attention for the celeb-like visuals of its older participants in their 50s and 60s.
From the beginning, one of the male participants, Lee Beom Cheon, found himself at the center of that attention for his “gentlemanly” vibe and cooking skills.
Two episodes in, however, allegations about Lee’s complicated past have troubled the production.
Via MissyUSA, an online community for US-based Koreans, Dallas-living Korean Americans began leaving damning comments about Lee’s past. One alleged that Lee had been married for eight years in Korea before he abandoned his wife, fled to the US, and married again, acting as a single man.
Whoa… He’s so brazen. He has his first wife in Korea. He abandoned her and fled to the US, where he got married again, acting like a single man. When the US wife found out, she called his first wife in Korea. She tried to cancel the marriage license, but for the sake of their child, she divorced him. She let him take the child custody because otherwise, he would be undocumented. With the child in his custody, he could get citizenship. His whole life is a fraud case… He cut off contact from the first wife for over two decades, but then out of the blue, he registered a child under his name. I guess JTBC doesn’t care enough to run background checks on the participants, but they’re contributing to the potential life-ruining of other women on that show…
— MissyUSA Comment
Other comments claimed that when his American wife found out about his abandoned Korean wife, he was divorced. Another person, alleging to have met Lee through the same church in Dallas, claimed that there is a third wife involved.
Other long-time Dallas residents also commented that Lee’s marriage with the third wife is not over. According to the allegations, Lee is still legally wed to the third wife but abandoned her to flee back to Korea after taking out $ 35,000 (USD) in loans.
I live in Dallas. And he’s a con artist for sure. From what I know, he’s not even officially divorced with his third wife. Yet, he’s all over the television like that… The Korean production team messed up. Does it not matter that he was married in the US? I’m not too close to his third wife, but I do know her. After watching Episode 2 of Last Love… It baffled me. How can he do this? I heard he took out a loan for $ 35K and didn’t make a single payment before running off to Korea. That’s going to destroy his credit, but I guess he’s not planning on returning to the US.
— MissyUSA Comment
In response, JTBC’s Last Love production team stated that they have decided to completely edit out the problematic participant from the upcoming episodes in order to quickly address the urgent issue.
We are currently verifying the facts regarding the personal issues of the participant, and we plan to edit the content to avoid causing discomfort to viewers, with the revised episode scheduled to air starting August 29. Please refrain from posting malicious comments and defamation towards the non-celeb participants of the show.
— JTBC
Video clips showing Lee on the show have not been removed from JTBC’s YouTube channel, but comments have been disabled.
Source: MK (1) and (2) and @lifrissue (1) and (2)
