Every Valentine's Day growing up, my dad would give me a strawberry cream-filled chocolate heart from Russell Stover.

I've always been quite insecure. I had followed Mum and Dad into TV and yet in my heart of hearts I knew it wasn't for me.

My dad always said I was hard-headed, that it would take something like that to wake me up spiritually, and I guess it did. My heart had gotten so beat up that I didn't have anything left to give.

While there was clear evidence that the dad was innocent in 'Miracle,' in 'Heart Blackened,' I was in a situation of 'having to' prove somebody's innocence. So when I stood trial as Hee-jung, things felt awkward and unfamiliar for me.

Well, my dad did a lot of Kung Fu when I was growing up, so he taught me a lot about mental toughness. Ways to slow your heart rate down, slow your breathing down to take control of your body so you can push yourself to the next limit.

When I was young, my parents were these titanic, infallible figures. But Mum's illness and Dad's battles with diabetes and heart attacks had a ripple effect on me - reminding me of my own mortality and that these illnesses are genetic.

My dad died of a heart attack when I was 15. I was bullied mercilessly in middle school. I went through a divorce - those not-so-great things are all a part of me, and they give me a place to go when I cover those stories on the news. I'm more empathetic, more relatable because of them.

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