Lee Da Hae shares a courtship story she had kept to herself
Lee Da Hae has given fans a new origin story for a long-running celebrity marriage. In a video uploaded to Jang Young Ran's YouTube channel on 21 October, the actress welcomed Jang Young Ran and comedian Shim Jin Hwa into her home in Shanghai, China. During the conversation she recalled how K-pop idol Se7en pursued her, how she initially rejected him, and how she later went to early-morning prayer services hoping he would call. Koreaboo reported the comments, citing Sports Seoul.
The account is Lee's own retelling, and K-Beats has not independently verified the conversation.
The detail matters less as a scandal than as a rare first-person footnote to a couple whose relationship has spanned nearly a decade and a marriage. Lee and Se7en married in May 2023 after nine years together. They are now preparing to welcome their first child, a daughter, in November 2026.
By sharing the awkward, hopeful part of how they got together, Lee turns a familiar celebrity-couple narrative into something more specific: a story about bad timing, changed minds and a prayer she had never told her husband about.
The rejection was clear, not dramatic
Lee described the two as acquaintances when Se7en began actively pursuing her. She said she initially thought dating him would be a bad idea. In her recollection, she even felt she was too good for him, and she eventually told him to stop contacting her. The source frames this as a decisive rejection rather than a playful back-and-forth. There is no suggestion of a falling-out or a public row; the picture is of two people at different points of readiness.
That makes the later turn more interesting. Lee did not describe being won over by a grand gesture. She described changing her own mind after the contact stopped.
For readers used to celebrity relationship stories built around secrecy or sudden announcements, the ordinariness is the point. Lee's account puts the emphasis on a boundary: she was not interested, she said so, and Se7en appears to have taken her at her word. The source does not elaborate on how much time passed or what else was happening in their lives. What it does provide is a clean sequence: pursuit, refusal, silence, reconsideration.
Silence made the feelings harder to ignore
According to Lee, Se7en stopped reaching out after she told him to. That silence became the moment her own feelings changed. She said she gradually realised she had developed feelings for him and found herself hoping he would contact her again. This is the hinge of the story. The source does not present it as a sudden reversal or a dramatic revelation. It is a quieter recognition that the absence of someone can clarify what you want.
The timeline is not detailed, and Lee's account should be read as a personal memory rather than a minute-by-minute record. But the emotional logic is easy to follow. A person who seemed unsuitable at first becomes someone missed after the messages stop. The fact that Se7en respected her request is part of what makes the reversal work. He did not ignore her boundary; he stepped away. Lee's later change of heart therefore belongs to her, not to pressure from him.
The early-morning prayer she never told Se7en about
The most distinctive detail is Lee's admission that she started attending early-morning prayer services specifically to pray that Se7en would call. She said she had never told him this before the YouTube conversation. In her retelling, the prayer was not a grand public gesture but a private routine born of hope. The source quotes her asking, in effect, for him to call her back.
It is the kind of detail that makes a celebrity anecdote feel human: slightly embarrassing, specific and rooted in a particular place and habit.
Lee's prayers, as she tells it, were answered when Se7en eventually reached out. She said she replied immediately and also expressed her feelings, wondering aloud why she had suddenly started missing him so much. That reply is the other half of the story. The rejection had been clear; the reversal was equally clear once the opportunity returned. The couple then began dating. The source does not say exactly when this happened, only that the relationship lasted nearly a decade before marriage.
From a near-miss to marriage and a baby daughter
Lee and Se7en married in May 2023 after nine years together. They are now preparing for their first child, a daughter, due in November 2026. The new anecdote gives that timeline a fuller beginning. Instead of a simple story about a K-pop idol and an actress falling for each other, it becomes a story about a pursuit that nearly ended early and a private change of heart that restarted it.
A related report covers how her pregnancy became a trending topic in China, adding another layer to the couple's public life.
That context matters because celebrity relationship stories often arrive in fragments: a dating confirmation, a wedding announcement, a pregnancy update. Lee's YouTube appearance connects some of those fragments through her own memory. It does not rewrite the public record of their marriage, but it does add a personal chapter that fans had not heard before. The source presents the story as a cute secret rather than a controversy, and the details support that framing.
Why a living-room YouTube conversation suits this story
The setting is part of the appeal. Lee welcomed Jang Young Ran and Shim Jin Hwa into her home in Shanghai, and the conversation unfolded in the kind of informal talk-show format that has become a regular outlet for Korean celebrities. These programmes do not usually depend on news pegs. They work because guests are given room to tell longer stories, circle back and reveal small details that would not fit a press release.
Lee's prayer anecdote is exactly that kind of material: too personal for a formal statement, but well suited to a relaxed conversation between peers.
The format also changes how the story lands. In a written interview, the prayer detail might read as a punchline. On a YouTube show, with guests in a domestic setting, it becomes part of a broader conversation about dating, timing and memory. The source notes that Lee was speaking to Jang and Shim, not giving a solo interview. That matters for tone.
The story is shaped by the company she is in, and the humour comes from the contrast between her earlier confidence and her later hope. The source does not describe the mood of the room in detail, so it is safer to treat the tone as conversational rather than to claim a specific audience reaction.
What the story adds, and what it does not
The verified facts are straightforward: Lee appeared on Jang Young Ran's YouTube channel on 21 October; she said she initially rejected Se7en; she later prayed for him to call; he did; they dated for nine years; they married in May 2023; and they are expecting a daughter in November 2026. What the story adds is a sense of Lee as a narrator of her own life. She is not presenting herself as passive or as swept off her feet.
She describes making a decision, reversing it and then acting quickly when the chance came back. That is a more active role than the usual celebrity couple origin story allows.
It does not tell us everything about the relationship, and it is not meant to. The source does not give a precise date for the prayer services, the length of the silence or Se7en's own recollection of events. Lee's account is the only one reported here. Those gaps are not flaws in the story so much as limits on what can be said.
The anecdote is valuable because it is specific and because Lee chose to share it, not because it resolves every question about the couple's early years.
The takeaway: timing can matter as much as pursuit
The lasting impression is not that Se7en chased harder or that Lee was won over by persistence. It is that the timing suited them both only after she had changed her own mind. He stepped back when asked; she recognised what she missed; and when he reached out again, she answered immediately. The prayer detail gives the story its humour, but the sequence gives it its meaning.
For fans, the new anecdote is a small, human addition to a couple who have already spent years in the public eye. It is also a reminder that a relationship story can be worth telling without a dramatic twist, as long as the people telling it are honest about the awkward parts.
