Why Hani's Acting Career Stalled Over Her Fiancé's Scandal

EXID's Hani stood at a press conference on July 22, 2026, promoting her first Korean television role in about three years. She hadn't quit acting, hadn't been fired, and hadn't broken any law. The scandal that froze her career belonged to someone else.

That someone was her fiancé, psychiatrist and television personality Yang Jae-woong, whose Bucheon hospital was linked to a patient's death in 2024. Hani had no operational role there and was never named a suspect. She still lost three years of screen work over it.

To Korean audiences, that outcome needed no explanation. To international fans, it looks strange: why would a person's own career stop for someone else's controversy? The answer runs through a much older Korean idea about how far responsibility travels inside a relationship.

A patient died four days before the engagement announcement

On May 10, 2024, a 33-year-old woman was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Bucheon for treatment related to an addiction to diet medication. She died 17 days later, on May 27. South Korea's National Forensic Service later attributed the death to a bowel obstruction.

Yang Jae-woong was the hospital's director. Four days after the patient died, on June 1, 2024, he and Hani announced they were engaged and would marry that September.

The medical case did not become public knowledge for another two months. When it did, Korean media reported that the couple had gone ahead with a wedding announcement while a patient's death at Yang's own hospital was still unresolved and undisclosed.

Why a fiancée absorbed blame for a hospital she never worked at

Once the case surfaced, online criticism did not stay directed at the hospital or at Yang. A significant share of it landed on Hani, who had no medical role, no ownership stake, and no decision-making authority over the patient's care.

Korean entertainment press had a name for this pattern: 「악플 연좌제」, or "hate-comment guilt by association" — commentary that holds a public figure responsible for a partner's conduct simply because they are a couple.

Yeonjwaje literally means "guilt-by-association system." It's an old legal term, and its reappearance in entertainment coverage of Hani's case was not a coincidence.

A legal system Korea abolished, but a habit that survived it

Formal yeonjwaje was written into the Joseon dynasty's penal code. Relatives of someone convicted of a serious crime, treason above all, could be punished alongside the offender — executed, enslaved, or exiled as a family unit rather than as individuals.

The law itself was abolished during the Gabo Reforms of 1894. What outlasted the statute was the underlying assumption: that a person's closest relationships are fair grounds for judging their character.

Hani's case fit that assumption closely. She filed no false report, made no medical decision, and committed no offense. What she had done was choose to marry the person at the center of the story.

How Korea's agency system turns backlash into an exit

Under Korea's agency system, entertainment companies manage nearly every visible part of a celebrity's career — casting, endorsements, and how a star responds when controversy hits. Broadcasters and advertisers tend to avoid any association with negative public sentiment, regardless of whether the star did anything wrong.

That caution creates a strong incentive to step back voluntarily rather than wait to be dropped. Hani did exactly that, withdrawing from JTBC4's Review 4 Cut, a variety show — a genre built around unscripted celebrity appearances rather than scripted acting — that she had been set to join. Her exit reportedly prompted other cast members to leave as well.

She made no public statement addressing the case for roughly a year afterward.

A filmography that hadn't found its breakout role yet

The timing compounded the damage. Hani had transitioned from EXID member to actress gradually, debuting in the 2020 web drama XX and building a resume that included SF8, Not Yet Thirty, and the Disney+ series Call It Love in 2023.

None of those projects had broken through to major ratings, and some Korean fans had already criticized her role choices before 2024. A three-year gap does more damage to a career still establishing itself than to an already-proven one.

She spent that gap largely out of view: performing occasional EXID dates, including university festivals, but giving no interviews and taking no scripted or unscripted television work.

EXID itself never disbanded, and the members have kept working together at a lower profile than during the group's 2015 peak. Hani's absence from acting was therefore a solo decision layered on top of a group that was already operating in a quieter phase of its career.

The KBS drama that ended a three-year gap

In March 2025, Hani resumed posting on social media after roughly ten months of silence, sharing a bare-faced photo with a short haircut rather than any statement about the case. She later appeared as a participant, not a host, on the counseling program Oh Eun-young's Stay.

In January 2026, her agency, Sublime Artist Agency, told Korean outlet OSEN she was considering an offer for a new KBS weekend drama. KBS confirmed her casting on June 9, alongside actor Ha Suk-jin, in a family drama known in Korean as Love Is Coming and released internationally as Love On the Menu.

At the July 22 press conference, Hani addressed the hiatus directly.

"I feel sorry for causing concern to so many people because of my personal matters," she said, adding that discussing it publicly still felt uncomfortable. On the pressure of returning: "I feel a great deal of pressure. But that's something I have to bear, so I'm doing my best."

Supporters and critics are arguing about different things

Reaction to Hani's return split cleanly into two arguments that don't actually address each other.

• One side argues she did nothing wrong — she had no role at the hospital, postponed her own wedding, and absorbed backlash without defending herself
• The other side focuses on the present, not 2024 — Hani and Yang are still together, so continuing the relationship keeps the association alive by choice
• A smaller group simply says her acting was inconsistent before the scandal, so the freeze mattered less to her career than the controversy itself

The two main camps are answering different questions: whether Hani was at fault in 2024, and whether staying with Yang now is a separate decision worth judging on its own. Korean entertainment coverage rarely separates the two, which is part of why the debate resurfaces every time she takes on new work.

What the case has not resolved

The hospital itself no longer exists. Public health authorities in Bucheon issued a three-month business-suspension order in December 2025 for violations of South Korea's Medical Service Act, and the hospital closed rather than reopen once the suspension ended.

On the criminal side, the bereaved family filed a complaint naming six hospital staff members, including Yang, over the patient's death. Prosecutors later indicted the hospital's on-duty physician and five nurses on charges of professional negligence resulting in death; the case also drew scrutiny in a National Assembly audit of the facility.

No wedding date has been announced. Hani and Yang have not confirmed a breakup, and neither has said publicly whether marriage is still part of their plans.

Timeline: From the Patient's Death to Hani's Return

Frequently asked

Why did Hani stop acting for three years?

Her fiancé Yang Jae-woong's hospital was linked to a patient's 2024 death, and online backlash under the 'yeonjwaje' guilt-by-association pattern led her to withdraw from a variety show and avoid new roles.

What happened to Yang Jae-woong's hospital?

Bucheon health authorities issued a three-month business-suspension order in December 2025 for Medical Service Act violations, and the hospital closed rather than reopen.

Are Hani and Yang Jae-woong still together?

No wedding date has been announced and neither has confirmed a breakup, so their relationship status remains unclear.