Samija Recalls Shy Middle-School Lee Jae-yong in Yonhap YouTube Interview

On Thursday, August 21, 2026, 86-year-old veteran actress Samija (Sa Mi-ja) spoke with Yonhap News Agency by phone about her new YouTube channel “Not Omija, Samija” and the childhood memory of Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong that has dominated Korean entertainment coverage since an August 19 upload. In the interview, Samija reflected on her first weeks as a creator and restated a story — first told on camera with her husband — of meeting Lee as a third-year middle school student at a Samsung family event, his face flushed as he tightly held his younger sisters’ hands.

Editor’s note: This article draws on Yonhap News Agency reporting (August 21, 2026), the August 19 video on Samija’s YouTube channel, and follow-up coverage from MoneyToday, MK, Sports Chosun, Newsis, and Maeil Business (August 20–21, 2026). Video metrics and subscriber counts may change after publication.

The anecdote that spread on August 19–20

The clip at the center of the coverage appeared in a video titled along the lines of “Could Such Happiness Come to Samija’s Life Again? It Brings Tears to My Eyes,” posted to “Not Omija, Samija” on August 19. Samija and her 89-year-old husband, Kim Gwan-su, were filmed dining at a hotel restaurant when conversation turned to her early broadcasting career.

Kim explained that because Samija was an exclusive talent for TBC (Tongyang Broadcasting Company) — a network historically linked to the Samsung group — she was regularly invited to Samsung parties and major company events. Samija then recalled seeing Lee Jae-yong in person when he was still in middle school.

Detail	What Samija described
When	Lee Jae-yong in third year of middle school (roughly ages 14–15)
Where	A Samsung family event or party she attended as a TBC exclusive
Who else was there	Younger siblings including Lee Boo-jin, now president of Hotel Shilla
What she remembered	A strikingly handsome boy, face red with shyness, firmly holding his sisters’ hands
How she framed it today	A lasting image she still carries with “motherly affection”

Samija said she wondered aloud how someone could look that handsome at that age. She mimed Lee holding both sisters’ hands and told viewers she can still picture his middle-school face decades later. Korean outlets on August 20–21 widely republished the exchange, pairing it with screenshots from the video.

How TBC tied Samija to Samsung events

Samija’s connection to Samsung-era gatherings is not new to industry insiders, but her on-camera retelling made the link vivid for a general audience.

She entered broadcasting in 1963 as a voice actor in the first recruiting class of Donga Broadcasting, then became an exclusive TBC acting talent in 1966. Her husband told the production team that TBC’s chairman favored Samija’s appearance and often invited her to birthday parties at hotels — events that, in his telling, also led to invitations to Samsung’s larger family functions.

That corporate-entertainment overlap was common in mid-20th-century Korean media, when major chaebol groups maintained close ties with broadcasters. Samija’s story reframes Lee Jae-yong — today one of Korea’s most scrutinized business leaders — as a shy teenager navigating a formal party alongside younger siblings.

What Samija told Yonhap on August 21

Yonhap’s August 21 phone interview placed the Lee anecdote inside a broader check-in on Samija’s YouTube debut, which began with a channel launch on August 5 produced with Sandbox Network.

In the conversation, Samija:

• Described adopting a “beginner’s mindset” as a creator despite more than 60 years on Korean television
• Pointed to her on-camera meeting with fellow veteran actress Kim Young-ok as a highlight of her early uploads
• Reiterated the Lee Jae-yong memory without adding new factual claims beyond the video
• Said she would like to meet singers Lim Young-woong and BTS, whom she admires from afar with almost parental curiosity

She also repeated a line that has defined her public framing of the project: after a lifetime in broadcasting, sitting idle lately feels lonely, and YouTube offers a direct way to keep working and talking with viewers. Yonhap’s piece consolidated what had been scattered across entertainment sites into a wire-service interview — a format Korean newsrooms often treat as a benchmark for follow-on coverage.

Channel context: “Not Omija, Samija”

Samija opened “Not Omija, Samija” (Korean: Omija malgo Samija) on August 5, a pun on her name and omija, the schisandra berry. The channel documents her 63-year marriage to Kim Gwan-su through senior lifestyle content: industry memories, gentle bickering over smartphones, and guest appearances by peers.

The August 19 hotel-dinner episode fits that template — personal history told casually over a meal — but the Lee Jae-yong passage gave the installment a second life beyond entertainment fans. Outlets that normally ignore YouTube creator launches picked up the Samsung chairman angle, extending Samija’s audience far past the channel’s core subscribers.

Why the story resonated

Several layers explain the breadth of coverage:

Humanizing a guarded public figure. Lee Jae-yong is rarely seen in unscripted personal anecdotes from contemporaries outside the Samsung orbit. Samija’s memory — a blushing teenager holding his sisters’ hands — offers a rare informal portrait from someone who witnessed it firsthand.

Generational contrast. An 86-year-old actress recalling a middle-school moment from decades ago sits alongside Lee’s current role steering Samsung Electronics through global tech and legal scrutiny. Korean readers often respond to stories that juxtapose chaebol heirs’ childhoods with their adult responsibilities.

YouTube as archive. Samija’s channel turns private industry lore into public record. Whether or not Lee or Samsung comment, the clip preserves a veteran performer’s oral history in a format easy to clip and share.

No statement from Lee Jae-yong or Samsung was reported in the August 20–21 coverage reviewed for this article.

Timeline

Date	Event
Aug. 5, 2026	Samija launches “Not Omija, Samija” with Sandbox Network
Aug. 19	Hotel-dinner video uploaded; Lee Jae-yong anecdote included
Aug. 20	Korean entertainment outlets amplify the clip
Aug. 21	Yonhap publishes phone interview with Samija

---

Discussion

Samija’s story is one person’s memory of a teenager at a family party — yet it landed beside headlines about one of Korea’s largest companies.

1. When veterans share unverified personal memories about powerful figures, how should media treat them?

Samija spoke from decades-old recollection, not documents. Is nostalgic testimony news, human interest, or something that needs more corroboration before wide republication?

2. Does humanizing chaebol leaders through childhood anecdotes change how the public judges their adult roles?

Lee Jae-yong’s middle-school shyness does not speak to corporate governance — but stories like this often travel farther than balance-sheet reporting. What do readers actually take away?

If you have watched Samija’s channel, what keeps you engaged — the marriage dynamic, the industry history, or moments like the Lee anecdote that leap into mainstream news?

---