Ham So Won revealed that she competed in Miss Korea when she was young to earn money.

She began to explain that she was part of the Pacific Miss Korea competition in 1997 when she appeared on the SBS Plus Variety show 'Kim Soo Mi's Are You Eating Well?' which aired on July 6.

Ham So Won explained that the reason she decided to compete in Miss Korea was that her family was always poor and she wanted to earn money. She continued to state that she didn't even have the tuition for college because her family was poor. She competed in the Miss Korea competition to earn money for her tuition.

She reminisced back and stated that "My family was poor since I was a child. My father was a soldier but decided to leave the army and start his own business. His businesses kept going under."  Ham So Won stated that she was the youngest of her siblings and they were struggling to the point they did not have anything to eat. They were always hungry so there were times they bought just ramen from the convenience next door.

Ham So Won also said "The three of us were cooking two bags of ramen and the electricity was cut off. We couldn't pay the electricity bill so we ate ramen while we were silently crying. I still remember that time."

She also went on to say, "I used to live in a semi-basement and I used to live off the relief supplies that came from the district office. When it rained, there were times when the house flooded up to my neck," she said. "It was like the house in the movie 'Parasite'," and added. "I've lived in a lot of those houses with the bathroom like the one in 'Parasite.'"

Many netizens felt sorry when they heard this story and host Kim Soo Mi was saddened as she said: "You barely stayed off the streets."