[talk] Kim Jaejoong: "I Found Out I Was Adopted While Filming TVXQ's Music Video"

Singer Kim Jae-joong (38), formerly of the group TVXQ, revealed that he was adopted and revealed the story of how he found out about his adoption.

Kim Jaejoong appeared on MBC's 'Radio Star' aired on the 16th and revealed that he was adopted when he was 3 years old as the youngest son of a large family with 8 older sisters.

Kim Jaejoong confessed, “I didn’t know I was adopted when I was young,” and “I only found out after I debuted with TVXQ. Even after I found out, it was uncomfortable to talk about adoption with my family.”

Regarding how they found out about the adoption, they said, “I was filming a music video in Busan during my TVXQ days when I got a call from an unknown number.” “At the time, I was suffering from sasaeng fans’ calls so I tried not to answer, but somehow I felt like I had to. Even though I was filming, I asked them to stop for a moment before answering the phone.”

He continued, “When I picked up the phone, he said, ‘Jaejun, how have you been?’ I thought, ‘Jaejun is the name my little mom used to call me, but who is he calling me that?’” He continued, “For a moment, even though he didn’t say who he was, it felt like the whole puzzle was falling into place.” He said he could intuitively feel that the person calling was his biological parent.

Kim Jaejoong explained, "When I looked into what happened, I found out that my company was making a photo book and included a photo of me when I was younger, and my family contacted me after seeing that."

Kim Jaejoong said, “My family all knew that I was adopted, but they kept it a secret from me,” and added, “My youngest sister and I are one year apart in age, but we are actually 10 months apart. My sister celebrated her birthday on my birthday because she was afraid that rumors about my adoption would spread around the neighborhood. I was only able to celebrate my real birthday after I became an adult. I’m so grateful.”

Wow, I found out quite late. I found out after I debuted...