90 Day Fiance fans are very well aware that Deavan Clegg and Jihoon Lee are broken up, even though Jihoon has not granted her a divorce yet.
The The Other Way couple’s split may be well known, but the cause has been the subject of a great deal of speculation.
Recently, a report came out claiming — very vaguely — that there were unspecified allegations of abuse in some form at the time of their split and Deavan’s return to the US.
As a result, as with Paul and Karine, Deavan and Jihoon will not appear on the Tell All special for Season 2 — TLC is trying to avoid the complicated matter by just not engaging at all.
Despite the lack of information about whatever allegations there are, fans have of course been speculating.
Deavan has remained relatively tight-lipped.
Meanwhile, Jihoon has gone on a lengthy Instagram rant about Deavan, their breakup, her new relationship, and a lot more.
Jihoon Lee Has Some Concerns
90 Day Fiance: The Other Way star Jihoon Lee is excited yet nervous for his wife’s arrival in South Korea.
Taeyang …
Jihoon and Deavan conceived Taeyang when they first met. They opted to turn life’s lemons into lemonade, getting married and trying (more than once) to permanently move their family to South Korea.
For a time, it worked
Deavan and Jihoon, along with little Drascilla from Deavan’s previous relationship and their son Jihoon, were a new family. They had a lot of problems, from the ongoing issue of the language barrier to some real issues of money, honesty, and maturity. Then, of course, were the conflicts — both having issues with their respective mother-in-laws.
It worked … until it didn’t
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit South Korea, at some point, Deavan and Jihoon broke up. While the show has not yet revealed how the relationship ended, both reports and fan speculation have apparently driven Jihoon to respond to what he is hearing from fans. He’s talking about more than just that, however.
Deavan has moved on
She recently shared photos from a socially distanced outing of her with Taeyang and Drascilla … and her new man.
He’s no longer a mystery man
He is an actor named Topher Park, and he and Deavan have shared some serious PDA on social media.
OH
He’s also a total smokeshow, which Deavan’s fans could not help but notice.
Deavan has been back in the US for months, now
She and Drascilla and Taeyang have been spending a lot of time with her mother, Elicia, as she gets back on her feet after her life was completely turned upside down.
She has said very little
But Deavan has, as we will refer to later, expressed that she and Drascilla are emotionally healing. Breakups and saying goodbye to someone who was once family can be tough … but is that all that she means?
As for Jihoon
On Monday night, Jihoon went on a 13-post rant about all that he has been hearing.
“Hello all”
Jihoon’s lengthy rant begins by emphasizing that he has not been putting their personal drama out there on social media, accusing Deavan of doing so instead. While Deavan has posted, most of what Jihoon refers to in this rant is in reference to reports and also to fan speculation. Jihoon then shoots down the fan rumor that his parents abused Drascilla, Deavan’s daughter, turning around and asking if it is safe for a child to go around maskless in the US. (We have not noticed any photos of Drascilla without a mask in unsafe locations in the US)
Did Jihoon just slack off all of the time?
Here, Jihoon describes working 16-hour days and sleeping only five hours per night during his efforts to make ends meet for the family. Then, he gets a little unclear, acknowledging that Deavan did pay to cover many expenses.
Did he ever get a job?
Yes. He reveals that he was working in tile, but had to abandon that career because it was not initially lucrative. (Was this him entering a trade school, or simply an apprenticeship? Either way, apparently this was an investment and not offering money right away). Jihoon clearly seems to resent that Deavan wanted money then and there, saying that he left
Is he only worried about his appearance these days?
Apparently, no matter what was said, Jihoon believed that Deavan had left him because he was “a nobody,” so he began investing in his appearance. He writes that he misses his son and that he resents that Deavan is dating again while they are still married on paper (notably, Deavan accuses him of refusing to grant her the divorce that she wants). He says that though they are broken up, he is anything but happy about it.
This part gets into the most upsetting territory
Keep in mind that Deavan herself has not said anything, other than the fact that she and Drascilla are emotionally recovering (a statement over the summer), but reports say that there was some sort of allegation of abuse surrounding Deavan’s departure from South Korea. Here, Jihoon shares an anecdote in which he claims to have at one point pulled Drascilla’s hair in order to show her how unkind it was to pull a classmate’s hair. While obviously, no one should be pulling any child’s hair under any circumstances, Jihoon’s description is clearly intended to make it sound like Deavan overreacted. (He doesn’t sound malicious, but to be honest, is there REALLY such a thing as overreacting when it comes to how your child is treated?) This is the first that anyone has heard of this incident, though it is now expected that Deavan will eventually be forced to comment.
Communication issues
Jihoon says that Deavan has not tried at all to reach out to his parents. He also claims that Deavan’s belief that he has no interest in seeing Taeyang stems from a mistranslation. After all of the translation shenanigans that went on between them in person, it is easy to believe that this may have happened while texting each other from the other side of the world. (Absolutely begging either of them to find a bilingual friend to polish their messages)
His version of the breakup
Deavon has not shared her version of events, but according to Jihoon, Deavan was miserable and insisted that she and the kids go back to the US. Jihoon writes that he paid for it, but that he got fired from his job (where he was making, it sounds like, in the ballpark of $4,000 per month) for leaving abruptly for this. He says that it was a month later that Deavan claimed that he had mistreated Drascilla, and a month after that that she had moved on with another man.
He didn’t want to take this to social media
Jihoon writes that he needs to put all of this out there in order for him to heal. We are sure that, though Deavan has said so little, fans have taken it upon themselves to bombard his Instagram with cruel comments just as they have with Deavan. He claims that Deavan doesn’t pick up his FaceTime attempts, that he sends his Cameo money to support Taeyang, and that he believes that he has legal leverage to fight Deavan on this.
Then …
He says that Deavan would praise America over South Korea (it’s unclear if he means that she would literally just say “America is #1” or would lament inconveniences or cultural differences while feeling homesick). It also sounds like Jihoon got a glimpse at Deavan’s contact history years ago and saw that she had been chatting with multiple Korean men before the two of them got together. He may be accusing her of fetishizing Korean men, but we are leery of putting words into his mouth.
More on his parents
He says that Deavan never really thanked or communicated much with his parents. He then says that Drascilla and his mother yelled at one another. While yelling within families is common, it is always a toxic behavior. Again, Deavan has not made any reference to this taking place so it sounds like Jihoon is responding to either private conversations or fan speculation.
He has no regrets
Jihoon feels that this relationship made him grow as a person, including the breakup. It certainly helped him to grow up — something that many people do not do until they are suddenly faced with responsibility.
He didn’t want to make this public
In his twelfth consecutive Instagram Story post, Jihoon says that he wanted to remain quiet but felt the urge to speak out. It sounds like he says that he’s “ashamed of his son” at the end, but that’s not what he means.
He means that he is a “shameful father to him”
We understand that things may be lost in translation. However, Jihoon’s tone here at the end as well as the volume has led some fans to speculate that he may have been drinking when he went on this Instagram Stories spree. Thirteen is a lot of posts to make back to back.
Wow
Clearly, there is a lot of pain for all parties involved. Jihoon defending himself against unspoken accusations doesn’t tell us much, but his pain is obvious, as is Deavan’s.