“I didn’t know what moms and dads were until I was in grade 1.”

With Lee Hangyul being on Produce X 101, his family background has resurfaced following the initial reveal on KBS’s The Unit which aired last year.

When Lee Hangyul was on The Unit, Rain visited all of the trainees to chat with them one-on-one.

During this time with Lee Hangyul, Rain asked him about his age and family relations to which Lee Hangyul replied, “My big brothers are 15 and 16 years older than me. My father is over 60 years old.”

Lee Hangyul then expressed his determination to succeed and be a good son to his parents and the reason was not what Rain expected.

Lee Hangyul confessed, “I didn’t know what moms and dads were until I was in grade 1. I was abandoned as a newborn baby and lived in an orphanage until I was 7 years old.”

He shared that there were times when he wondered why his parents abandoned him but that he thinks they might have had their reasons or had difficulty getting by.

Lee Hangyul revealed that the mother who adopted him was a social worker at the time and that since he received so much warmth and care from his parents, he wants to pay them back working hard.