The Fayetteville Observer - 2.4.07


By most standards, “Survivor” winner Yul Kwon is a pretty wealthy man.

In December, he won $1 million on the CBS reality show “Survivor: Cook Islands.” Even when you siphon off the sizable chunk of cash that goes to the IRS, he’s still left with enough money that he could pick any eye doctor in the world to perform Lasik eye surgery.

But Yul, who lives in California, decided to come to Fayetteville to let Dr. Michael Woodcock do the procedure. Woodcock, who owns Carolina Vision Center, just happens to be the father of Yul’s “Survivor” competitor and onetime rival, Candice.

Becky Lee, the show’s third-place winner and Yul’s biggest ally on the show, came from Washington to have her eyes fixed.

Was Dr. Woodcock running a “Survivor” two-for-one special?

“Ideally, I wanted to do it before the show but I didn’t have time,” Yul said Saturday after his post-surgery checkup. “I knew it was important to go to someone who was very experienced and you could trust. He’s the foremost expert on Lasik, so it seemed like an easy choice.”

To fans of the show, this doctor-patient relationship might seem unusual. While Woodcock has performed the procedure thousands of times — at least 21,000, according to his Web site — his daughter did betray her pals Yul and Becky on the show.

In what has become a now classic “Survivor” moment, competitors were given the option of “declaring mutiny,” or jumping to the other team. Candice, a graduate of Terry Sanford High School and UNC-Chapel Hill, stunned everyone when she was the first person to do so. Another contestant, Jonathan Penner, jumped ship, too.

“We were basically shocked,” Becky said. “We were like, ‘Oh my gosh. Did that just happen?’”

The mutiny changed the game for everyone. Yul and Becky, who thought they had a strong alliance with Candice, were left as underdogs.

“When the mutiny happened, I was really upset,” Yul said. “We thought we were friends with her beyond the game. It was our intention to go to the end with her.”

Unfortunately for Candice, that wasn’t the case. Yul and Becky and two other competitors sent Candice to the bleak Exile Island four times. She was voted off a few episodes later.

But that drama was left on the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

“After the show, we were able to put all that aside,” said Yul, who will be 32 on Feb. 14. “We’re actually close friends.”

Becky, who is 29, has become good friends with Candice, too. Candice is a graduate student at Georgetown University in Washington and is applying to enroll in medical school. She and Becky watched the show together every Thursday last fall.

Until recently, Becky said, she didn’t know that Candice’s father was an eye doctor and performed the procedure. Candice was able to ease Becky’s fears about having someone operate on her eyes, Becky said.

Becky and Yul arrived in Fayetteville on Thursday and had dinner with Candice’s family. (For the record, Yul and Becky are just friends.)

Their surgeries were done Friday, and they say they are thrilled with the results.

Yul said an eye infection during the show forced him to wear glasses instead of contact lenses, which made swimming and competing in physical challenges difficult.

Early on in the game, Becky and Yul realized Candice was a fierce competitor and a shrewd strategist. But the edited version of events didn’t illustrate Candice’s strengths and why she plotted certain tactics, they said. Instead, the show focused on a flirtation between Candice and another contestant.

Once the racially divided teams integrated, Becky quickly approached Candice about forming an alliance.

“We have similar personalities,” Becky said. “We’re very aggressive and competitive females. And if you know someone is a student of the game and has watched every single game, you know she’s a good person to know.”

In what seemed like a natural fit, Becky, Yul, Candice and Jonathan made decisions together until the mutiny. Yul and Becky now say they understand Candice’s motivations. In an interview after the game, Candice said she feared Yul and Becky would not take her to the final stages of competition. She thought she would have a better chance of winning on the other tribe.

Becky tried to assure her that they wouldn’t betray her, but Candice’s mind was made up.

To Becky and Yul, the show was more than just a chance to win $1 million. Both Korean, they went on the show to positively portray Asian-Americans on TV. And for part of the show, the contestants were divided along racial and ethnic lines.

“It’s a bigger cause for us,” Becky said. “It was more about representing that people can work together. We were so excited two Korean-Americans were on a reality show when there normally is one token Asian. It meant more to me to stay loyal and play the game that way.”

Both said they want to take advantage of the attention they’re getting — and the money — to continue representing the Asian-American community and highlight their personal causes.

Becky, who got $75,000 as the third-place finisher, has established the Becky Lee Women’s Support Fund to give money to programs that help battered women. Yul said he wants to be a good role model for children and to continue to change stereotypes. He hasn’t decided if he will do that in a public way or by privately contributing to organizations.

He and Becky left their jobs. Becky was a lawyer for the Battered Women Justice Project in Washington. She is looking for a new job. Yul was a management consultant in San Mateo, Calif.

“It seemed like a perfect time to take a break, get perspective and take stock of my life,” Yul said. “When I came back, after being on that island for two months, I couldn’t bear the thought of making more PowerPoint presentations.”

He hasn’t decided how to spend his $1 million. After walking around for weeks with the check in his wallet — the press tour kept him so busy he couldn’t go to the bank — he said the money is “mostly sitting there.” He is contemplating buying a hybrid car, though.

“‘Survivor’ is such an intense experience,” Yul said. “It takes you awhile to readjust. But I’ve been so busy running around. I still feel like I haven’t had a time to take a deep breath and decompress.”