Actor Lee Yi Kyung (36) will leave the program “What Do You Do When You’re Free?” without saying goodbye to the viewers and will not participate in the filming scheduled for the 6th of this month.
An MBC “What Do You Do When You’re Free?” representative told SpotvNews on November 4: “Lee Yi Kyung recently expressed his desire to withdraw due to his schedule.” The representative added that the production team decided to respect his decision, and thus his departure has been officially confirmed.
There will be no special farewell episode for Lee Yi Kyung. He is scheduled to be absent from the upcoming filming on the 6th of this month, which means he will leave the program he has regularly appeared on since September 2022—nearly three years—without a farewell.
Recently, the program did not film for two consecutive weeks (October 23 and 30) due to difficulties in coordinating the cast’s schedules, as well as changes in the broadcast schedule caused by news coverage of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. As filming was set to resume after this break, Lee Yi Kyung conveyed his intention to step down and, as a result, will not participate in the filming on the 6th.
After recently completing the filming of the movie “Generational Regret,” Lee Yi Kyung now faces a situation that requires him to film additional projects, including new movies and dramas. It was reported that he found it difficult to continue appearing on the weekly Thursday recordings of “What Do You Do When You’re Free?” while managing his other schedules, and therefore decided to withdraw.
Meanwhile, Lee Yi Kyung recently faced rumors about his private life of a sexual nature. His agency stated that these rumors are completely groundless, and on November 3 announced: “Through our legal representative, we have submitted victim materials and filed a complaint with the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul against those who wrote and spread the posts, on charges of spreading false information and defamation.”
