"Descendants of the Sun" stars to wed in October (2024)

Song Joong-ki, left, and Song Hye-kyo are seen together at the 52th Baeksang Arts Awards in Seoul, June 3. / Yonhap

By Park Jin-hai

Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, two co-stars of the 2016 smash hit drama "Descendants of the Sun," which took Korea and other Asian countries by storm, made a surprise wedding announcement, Wednesday.

"They plan to marry on Oct. 31," said Blossom Entertainment and UAA, the companies representing the two stars.

Song Joong-ki later posted a statement online and said that the two became lovers through filming "Descendants of the Sun" together.

"We have promised to spend the rest of our lives together... and are planning to hold a wedding on the last day of October," he said.

The news came as a surprise since both stars had continuously denied a series of recent reports that raised suspicions that the two hallyu stars were dating. The wedding news has topped the online real-time search rankings on major portal sites.

In the 16-episode drama "Descendants of the Sun" set in the fictional war-torn country of Uruk, Song Joong-ki played the captain of the Korean army's special forces unit who falls in love with a doctor played by actress Song Hye-kyo.

The drama garnered a record rating of 40 percent in Korea and became a major hallyu drama export in recent years.

Rumors of the two dating first surfaced last year when an anonymous Internet user claimed to have spotted them shopping and dining together in New York. In June, last month, MBC's entertainment news program "Section TV" raised the possibility of the two vacationing together in Bali, Indonesia. The agencies of both acknowledged that their stars had gone to Bali but denied they traveled together. Song Hye-kyo said to a local media outlet, "It isn't required of me to respond (to such rumors)."

The news channel has been under fire for excessive reporting, using the actress's private photographs which were posted on her closed Instagram account, and had to apologize.

Drama fans welcomed the news but also were baffled. A netizen said, "It's so sweet to just watch them together. Congratulations to the new perfect couple," but another said "After denying it twice, here is the announcement of the wedding. Is it real?"

Their agencies said, "We are sorry for making this surprise announcement that may take many of our fans by surprise," and added "The situation demanded caution as marriage is a joining of not just two people but of two families."

Local news outlets churned out stories about when the couple started their romantic relationship. Many speculated that they started it as early as 2015, since the drama took eight months to film all the episodes before it hit air waves in February of 2016.

The "Song-Song couple" revealed their secret wedding plans to their closest friends about a month ago. "Song Joong-ki had a serious discussion with us about a month ago, and that's when we started deliberating when to make the announcement," said Kim Jung-yong of Blossom Entertainment.

It is also believed that the sudden wedding news came because the film "The Battleship Island," starring Song Joong-ki, is awaiting release. Ahead of the promotion of the film, the couple could have thought that it would be better to be clear about the rumors than hiding, worrying that further denying could badly affect its box office, a local media outlet said. The film is set to be released on July 25.

Other celebrity couples

After the Song-Song couple's surprise marriage announcement, big name celebrity couples who tied the knot in the past have also drawn attention.

Fictional drama couples becoming real couples dates back to the 1960s. Widely mentioned as the first power couple-marriage is the Shin Seong-il and Eom Aeng-ran union. The wedding ceremony of the two movie stars at the peak of their popularity in the 1960s was compared to a film set with many stars. More than 4,000 fans swarmed the wedding place.

Choi Soo-jong and Ha Hee-ra, became a 1990's star couple, after starring in many movies together and then married in 1993, while Cha In-pyo and Shin Ae-ra developed a romance through the 1994 smash hit drama "Love is in Your Embrace" and had a much publicized wedding in 1995.

Another top star couple Jang Dong-gun and Ko So-young starred in the 1998 romantic film "Love Wind Love Song" and after 12 years of being close to each other finally married in 2010. Ji Sung and Lee Bo-young who co-starred in the 2004 drama "Save the Last Dance for Me" became lovers and tied the knot nine years later.

More recently, actor Lee Byung-hun of "G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" married actress Lee Min-jung in 2013. In 2015, Bae Yong-joon, of "Winter Sonata" which marked the start of the hallyu boom, married former K-pop girl group member Park Soo-jin. Acclaimed actors Won Bin and Lee Na-young had a quiet and private wedding in a wheat field in Gangwon Province, surprising many fans.

Earlier in January, singer and actor Rain married long-time girlfriend, actress Kim Tae-hee.

Eom Aeng-ran, left, and Shin Seong-il

Jang Dong-gun, left, and Ko So-young

Kim Tae-hee, left, and Rain