Jeong Ae-ri wraps 20 episodes before ovarian cancer treatment

Jeong Ae-ri has revisited the period in 2016 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. What remains striking in her account is not only the name of the illness itself, but the fact that after sensing that something was wrong with her body, she first wrapped up the drama filming she had already committed to before beginning treatment.

For an actor who has worked for decades, a project does not move only according to one person's private schedule. It is also a shared commitment involving viewers, production staff and fellow cast members. Jeong's latest public remarks are less a story about hiding illness as a virtue than a calm record of a time when she had to face medical treatment and professional responsibility at the same time.

Jeong spoke in detail about the situation in episode six of “Song Seung-hwan's Wonderful Life,” featuring Jeong Ae-ri, which was uploaded on June 9, 2026. At the time, she was continuing theater work, television drama filming and dubbing. While reading a script, her condition became so poor that it was difficult for her to move. She had already been losing weight and feeling drained, but amid a packed schedule, those changes could easily have been dismissed as fatigue.

The course she described began with an emergency situation, followed by peritonitis, and then a visit to a cancer center, where she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her account shows both how recognition of an illness can be delayed and how a veteran actor was carrying several schedules at once while moving through that uncertainty.

Even after receiving the diagnosis, Jeong said she completed the remaining portion of the drama she was appearing in before undergoing surgery. In her own words, the amount was about 20 episodes.

The phrase she used, a “promise with the viewers,” was not a light one. In a broadcast drama, the absence of one person can shake the script, the shooting schedule, editing and the flow of broadcast. Even with treatment that could no longer be postponed ahead of her, Jeong finished the work she was able to complete and then headed to the hospital.

This was not the first time Jeong had spoken publicly about that experience. In 2022, on “Diner Heo Young-man's Baekban Journey,” she also discussed her 2016 battle with ovarian cancer and the physical changes she experienced after chemotherapy. She said at the time that she lost a great deal of hair during chemotherapy and that she had to eat more than 200 grams of meat every day to withstand the treatment process.

Her 2026 remarks offered another, more detailed return to those memories. Jeong said she followed what her doctor told her to do and chose to accept only as much information as she felt she could endure, rather than trying to know more and more. That cannot be the answer for every patient, but it was the way Jeong chose at the time to manage her anxiety.

Jeong is an actor who left a strong impression on the public through the 1984 drama “Love and Truth.” Since then, she has sustained a long career, moving between a composed image and forceful roles in a range of works. In recent YouTube interviews, she has also looked back on her acting life across multiple episodes.

Her comments about ovarian cancer are therefore more than a single health confession. They carry the weight of an actor with nearly 50 years of activity explaining, once again in front of the camera, how she passed through a crisis in her body. Jeong Ae-ri's story is closer to a public record of a long-working actor reflecting on both her body and her work than to an anecdote meant simply to be consumed through tears.