Leeteuk talked about how he overcame his family hardships.

He was a guest on the January 22 installment of JTBC's 'Talk to You', where the topic of the lecture was 'spoon'. He said, "When I see a spoon, I think to myself that I should work harder. Even if I'm tired and exhausted, I think about how the side dishes would change to that extra spoonful of rice, and I work hard."

On having a 'silver spoon' (golden spoon in Korea), he said, "I know many people might see me as having a golden spoon because I am in the spotlight as a celebrity, but if I look back to my middle school and high school days, I think I'm actually a dung-spoon. My family was not well off. As soon as I debuted [and until now], I've been the head of my household for 13 years. I've had times where I lamented my parents, thinking, 'why couldn't I have been born to a richer, a happier family?' But if I think about it now, I think those times enabled me to become stronger now."

He added, "A new generation was built always by people who went through hardships. It gave me hope that I could become a small hero."