Lee Mi-young Reveals Lip Filler Side Effects: "I Had to Undergo Removal Surgery Twice After Injecting an Industrial Substance"

[Sportschosun reporter Jo Yoon-sun] Actress Lee Mi-young opened up about the pain she endured after a past lip procedure went wrong.

On the MBN program Overcoming Story: While You Were Sick, which aired on the 14th, Lee Mi-young appeared and spoke publicly for the first time about the lip procedure.

That day, Lee said, "This is the first time I’m talking about my lips on air. I want to speak about it now. I want to tell you how difficult it was."

She recalled the controversy over how noticeably different her lips had become, saying, "My lips have always been full since I was young. Everyone in my family has thick lips."

She continued, "When I was in my 30s, younger colleagues told me I would look very sexy if my lips were just a little fuller. Back then, there was nothing like lip fillers today."

Lee said she was introduced to a specialist from the United States. "People said my lips would look so pretty, and I was told the injected substance would eventually leave the body through urine, so I thought, 'Let’s try it.' But in the end, it didn’t come out," she said.

She explained that the filler contained an industrial substance rather than a medical one. "I thought it would be fine, so I got two injections," she said. "It should have been injected into the center of my lips, but it was injected on both sides, and my lips turned inside out."

Lee said the side effects left her lips turned inside out, and she was then subjected to malicious comments every time she appeared in a drama. "People were furious, asking why I had turned my lips inside out. I was rejected from projects, and my drama appearances stopped. I took all kinds of abuse and the stress kept building up. It was the biggest mistake of my life. The price of that procedure was far too high," she said.

She added, "I was gullible, so I got the injections to look prettier, but they turned out so badly that I had surgery twice to restore my original appearance." She said the removal surgery was not easy either because her lips were thin and had many blood vessels.

Lee said, "The problem is that it is hard to recover completely to the original state. Still, I’m satisfied now. I went through so much." She added, "Now that everything has been removed, these are my lips."

She also said, "I had such a hard time because of malicious comments, but I’m speaking out after making a big decision. I lived with deep regret. Now that everything has been removed, these are my lips. Please don’t misunderstand me and look at them kindly."