Could a Married Woman Really Have a Secret Lover in Joseon Korea? The Real History Behind Netflix’s The Scandal

Netflix’s The Scandal asks viewers to accept a provocative idea.

In Joseon Korea — a society famous for strict Confucian morality — Lady Cho, a talented noblewoman trapped by the limitations placed on women, secretly plays a dangerous game of love and seduction.

It makes great television.

But could a noblewoman in the real Joseon Dynasty actually have a secret lover?

And if she were discovered, what would happen?

The answer is more interesting than simply “no.”

Why The Scandal Chose Joseon Korea

The Scandal, starring Son Ye-jin, Ji Chang-wook and NANA, premieres globally on Netflix on September 18, 2026.

Netflix describes Lady Cho as an exceptionally talented woman who refuses to be confined by the expectations placed on women of her era.

She proposes a secret romantic wager to Cho Won, a notorious playboy, eventually drawing another woman, Hui-yeon, into their dangerous game.

That premise deliberately creates a contradiction:

The stricter the society, the more dangerous the desire becomes.

And Joseon Korea provides an almost perfect setting for that conflict.

Could a Married Joseon Woman Have a Lover?

Physically?

Of course.

Legally and socially?

That was another matter entirely.

Joseon society increasingly organized marriage and family life around Neo-Confucian ideas of lineage, chastity and proper relations between men and women.

For an elite woman in particular, sexual behavior was not considered purely private.

Her reputation could affect her husband, children and extended family.

This is one reason Lady Cho’s behavior in The Scandal would have been genuinely dangerous rather than simply embarrassing.

A secret affair was possible.

Getting caught could destroy far more than a romance.

Women and Men Did Not Play by the Same Rules

This is one of the most important things international viewers should understand about the setting.

Joseon marriage was not sexually equal.

The dynasty developed a formal distinction between a man’s principal wife and concubines.

A man could therefore have relationships with women other than his principal wife within socially recognized structures.

Women had no equivalent system.

For a wife, sexual fidelity was closely connected to Confucian ideals of female virtue.

Even the traditional grounds on which a husband could seek to remove a wife included sexual misconduct among the so-called “Seven Grounds” associated with Joseon marital norms.

So when The Scandal gives Lady Cho desires comparable to those of Cho Won, it is doing something deliberately provocative.

The same desire did not carry the same consequences for a man and a woman.

What If a Noblewoman Was Caught?

The consequences depended on the period, social status and circumstances, so there is no single punishment that describes every case across five centuries of Joseon history.

But for an elite woman, the danger was substantial.

Sexual misconduct could damage her standing inside the household and provide grounds for marital separation.

And the social consequences could extend beyond the woman herself.

Joseon society cared intensely about legitimate family lines.

A scandal involving a principal wife could therefore become a question not only of morality, but also of family legitimacy, inheritance and status.

For a yangban family concerned with reputation and government careers, that could be devastating.

This helps explain why secrecy matters so much in a story like The Scandal.

The danger is not merely:

“What if my husband finds out?”

It is:

“What happens to my entire place in society if people find out?”

Could Joseon Women Divorce Their Husbands?

Not on equal terms with men.

Joseon divorce practices developed within a patriarchal legal and family structure.

Historical sources describe legal divorce largely through state-enforced separation or a husband’s grounds for dismissing his wife.

There were also restrictions on when a husband could remove a wife, so husbands did not possess completely unlimited power.

Still, this was very different from modern divorce based on equal individual rights.

A married noblewoman dissatisfied with her life could not simply obtain a modern-style divorce and begin again.

That makes Lady Cho’s frustration much easier to understand.

A talented woman might possess intelligence, wealth and influence —

yet still have remarkably little freedom over the most personal parts of her life.

What About Widows Like Hui-yeon?

This is where The Scandal becomes even more interesting.

NANA’s character Hui-yeon is a widow who intends to remain chaste after her husband’s death.

To a modern viewer, that might seem like a personal choice.

In Joseon Korea, widow chastity became a powerful social ideal.

The government increasingly encouraged elite widows to remain faithful to deceased husbands, and restrictions on remarriage became particularly strong during the dynasty.

In 1477, during the reign of King Seongjong, restrictions were introduced against remarriage among widows of the elite sajok class.

A widow’s remarriage could even have consequences for her descendants.

That changes the way we see Hui-yeon.

When Cho Won attempts to seduce her, he is not merely challenging her romantic resistance.

He is challenging an entire moral identity society has constructed around her.

Was Widow Remarriage Always Forbidden in Korea?

No.

And this is a fascinating detail.

Before Joseon, particularly during the Goryeo period, widow remarriage was much more accepted.

The increasingly strict attitude toward widows developed alongside Joseon’s growing Neo-Confucian social order.

Even within Joseon, attitudes and regulations evolved over time.

That is important because historical Korea was not one unchanging society.

A rule or custom associated strongly with late Joseon should not automatically be projected onto every Korean woman living centuries earlier.

Could Noblewomen Meet Men Privately?

Elite women’s lives could be heavily restricted by expectations surrounding gender separation and propriety.

But “restricted” does not mean women literally never encountered unrelated men.

Households were complicated spaces containing relatives, servants, visitors and social networks.

Human beings also found ways around social rules.

That is true in almost every historical society.

So a secret relationship was certainly imaginable.

The unrealistic part would be treating it as casual and consequence-free.

For a noblewoman, secrecy would be essential precisely because discovery could carry enormous social consequences.

Then Were Joseon Women Completely Powerless?

No — and this is where historical dramas can oversimplify things in the opposite direction.

Joseon women were not identical, and their circumstances changed according to period, class, wealth, family structure and personality.

Elite women could manage households, control resources in certain circumstances, influence relatives and participate indirectly in family decisions.

Earlier Joseon customs could also differ significantly from the stricter gender order commonly associated with later centuries.

So the choice is not between:

“Joseon women were free”

and

“Joseon women had absolutely no agency.”

Reality was more complicated.

They could possess influence while simultaneously living inside legal and social structures that severely limited their choices.

That contradiction is exactly what makes Lady Cho an interesting character.

Why Could Men Like Cho Won Be Playboy Characters?

Cho Won represents the opposite side of this system.

Netflix describes him as Joseon’s greatest playboy — a man who chooses pleasure over conventional ambition.

A wealthy elite man had far more room for sexual behavior than a respectable married woman.

That does not mean Joseon society approved of unlimited male promiscuity.

Family reputation, hierarchy and proper conduct still mattered.

But the consequences and expectations were clearly unequal.

That inequality gives The Scandal its central irony:

Cho Won can become famous for seduction.

Lady Cho must hide desire itself.

So Is The Scandal Historically Accurate?

We should probably separate historical setting from historical probability.

The series is not presenting itself as a documentary.

It reimagines Dangerous Liaisons, the 1782 French novel that has inspired numerous adaptations, through Joseon Korea. Netflix also connects the new series to the 2003 Korean film Untold Scandal.

So the extraordinary romantic game at the center of the story is intentionally dramatic.

But the social danger surrounding it is grounded in something very real.

A noblewoman’s sexuality was constrained.

Widow chastity mattered.

Marriage was tied to family and lineage.

Men and women faced different expectations.

And reputation could affect much more than one individual’s private life.

In that sense, the historical restrictions don’t weaken The Scandal’s premise.

They make the scandal possible.

The Most Interesting Question Isn’t “Could She Do It?”

Of course Lady Cho could secretly desire someone.

Joseon women were human beings, not Confucian symbols.

The better question is:

How much would she risk by acting on that desire?

For a modern woman, a forbidden affair can destroy a marriage.

For a noblewoman living under Joseon’s strict social order, discovery could threaten her reputation, her position within the family and potentially the standing of people around her.

That makes the title The Scandal unusually appropriate.

The shocking part isn’t that a woman could desire another man.

The shocking part is what her society demanded she sacrifice in order to act like a person with desires of her own.

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Quick Answers

Could a married woman have a secret lover in Joseon Korea?
Yes, affairs were humanly possible, but an elite woman faced serious legal, familial and social consequences if discovered.

Were men allowed to have other women?
Joseon developed a recognized concubinage system for men, while wives had no comparable sexual freedom.

Could a widow remarry?
Attitudes changed over time, but Joseon increasingly restricted elite widow remarriage and strongly promoted widow chastity.

Were all Joseon women confined and powerless?
No. Women’s experiences varied by period, class and family, and some exercised considerable household or economic influence despite major structural restrictions.

Is Lady Cho a historically typical Joseon woman?
No. She is an intentionally extraordinary fictional character. The interesting historical element is how dangerous her behavior would have been within the society surrounding her.