Nam Bo Ra Opens Up About Lifelong Grief After Her Brother’s Death, Urging Others to “Overcome It Well”

Korean actress Nam Bo Ra has shared new details about what she calls the toughest period of her life, describing the grief she has carried since the sudden death of her younger brother in 2015.

In a recent YouTube guest appearance posted on the channel CGN on the 23rd, Nam Bo Ra discussed faith, personal crises, and the emotional aftermath of losing a sibling—outlining how she coped at the time, how she returned to prayer, and why she now believes the pain may never fully disappear.

A grief that reshaped her life

Nam Bo Ra is widely known for being the eldest of 13 siblings, a role that has often shaped her public image as someone attentive to those around her. But behind that caring reputation, she has repeatedly described the death of her younger brother as a pivotal and deeply painful moment.

In the latest interview, she revisited that reality candidly, saying she went through what she described as another major crisis after earlier sharing the moment she lost her younger sibling. According to the account published by Koreaboo, she recalled that her brother’s passing in 2015 was the hardest time in her life—so difficult that even years later, the emotional burden remains.

She explained that she kept the pain buried for a long time, describing it as something she “covered up,” avoiding thinking about it because reopening the memory felt unbearable.

Returning to early-morning prayers

One of the most striking parts of Nam Bo Ra’s account centers on her decision to return to early-morning prayers. She said she remembered the kind of prayers she used to attend as a child and, feeling overwhelmed by her suffering, chose to go again.

During those prayers, she described crying intensely and essentially pleading for help—reportedly shouting “Please save me, please help me.” She also said she experienced anger alongside despair, asking why it happened and why it was happening to her, according to the published summary.

The account portrays prayer not as a smooth path to comfort, but as a complex emotional space where she could express both grief and resentment at once—highlighting that even faith does not necessarily remove suffering instantly.

“The pain will last a lifetime”—but the goal is to overcome

Nam Bo Ra’s message to viewers went beyond recounting a traumatic event. She emphasized that the suffering is not necessarily something that vanishes on a timeline.

She reportedly told the audience that she does not believe the pain will disappear, suggesting that the “suffering will last a lifetime.” However, the point of her reflection was not resignation. Instead, she urged people to focus on how to live through grief: “It’s important not to remain in that pain but to overcome it well,” as summarized in the report.

That distinction—between the persistence of pain and the possibility of working through it—gives the interview a different emotional tone from many celebrity confessions. Rather than framing healing as a finished state, she appears to present it as a continuing process of learning to carry the weight while still moving forward.

Why the confession has resonated

Nam Bo Ra’s openness reflects a broader trend in South Korean celebrity culture: public figures increasingly discuss mental health and bereavement with more specificity, including how they coped, what they avoided, and what they wish they had understood earlier.

Her new comments also carry added significance because they connect multiple aspects of her identity—family duty as the eldest of a large sibling group, personal faith built through childhood habits, and the long-term impact of losing someone close. For audiences, the emphasis on suppressed emotions—how she “deliberately avoided thinking about it”—may mirror experiences that many people recognize but rarely hear articulated by entertainers.

What to watch next

With Nam Bo Ra continuing to speak about grief and resilience across interviews, viewers may see more follow-up coverage as audiences respond to her latest remarks about coping, prayer, and long-term healing.

In the short term, her story may also renew discussion on how public figures talk about bereavement: not just the event itself, but the years-long psychological process that follows—along with the question of whether “getting better” means forgetting, or simply learning to endure without being consumed.