South Koreans blame surge in adultery on Doctor Foster

ADULTERY is surging in South Korea with worried commentators linking the rise to the popularity of a local remake of BBC drama Doctor Foster.

Five years after Seoul decriminalised marital affairs, a poll in The Chosun Ilbo newspaper found 41.3 per cent of married men and 24.4 per cent of married women had indulged in one.

In a similar survey carried out six months after the reform in 2015, just 10.8 per cent of wives admitted to an affair, although the figures for men were roughly the same.

The final episode of the South Korean Doctor Foster remake, The World of the Married, drew a nationwide audience share of more than 28 per cent when it aired last week – a record for a cable programme.

The drama has earned rave reviews for tackling subjects that have previously been largely taboo in South Korean culture, including women having relationships outside their marriages and violence within the family.

The Chosun Ilbo connected the rising level of adultery shown in its poll with the show, suggesting viewers were “drawn to the darker aspects of marriages gone wrong”.

“This TV drama has been all about themes that are very popular in society at the moment, especially infidelity,” Dr Shim Sangwon, a marriage counsellor in Seoul, told The Daily Telegraph.

He said that a century ago, “extramarital affairs were a fact of life for men and, culturally, it was a man’s privilege to play these games”, but added that there has been a rapid increase in infidelity since the law was changed.

“Women now have exactly the same rights as men and while there are many reasons why a woman will have an affair, a lot of it is about revenge on a cheating husband,” he said.

Dr Shim also anticipates that the number of people who are having affairs will continue to climb as South Korean society grapples with a range of deep-seated problems.

“A lot of working men are extremely stressed at work at the moment because of the state of the economy, which has been made worse by the coronavirus outbreak,” he said.

According to The Chosun Ilbo study, 54.4 per cent of people said they cheated on their partner because they were attracted to another person, while 21.3 per cent claimed they were unsatisfied with their sex life.

In the poll 7.3 per cent said they were cheating because they were angry with their partner.