Red Velvet member Irene is drawing attention after becoming noticeably drunk during an appearance on Lee Young Ji’s YouTube show No Prepare, while some overseas fans raised concerns about her eating durian while drinking alcohol.
On August 14, No Prepare released an episode featuring Irene, who is rarely seen drinking publicly. The production team jokingly described how the normally reserved singer gradually became much more outgoing after drinking.
They wrote, “She entered as extremely introverted Irene, but after one drink, her shyness slowly disappeared,” before joking that she eventually became an energetic version of herself while enjoying drinking games.
Fans were surprised to see Irene visibly tipsy, with some commenting that it was their first time seeing this side of her despite following her career for years.
However, the episode also sparked a separate discussion after viewers noticed that Irene ate durian while consuming alcohol.
Some fans from Southeast Asia warned in the comments that combining the two is traditionally discouraged in their countries.
One Thai viewer wrote that people in Thailand are commonly advised not to consume durian and alcohol together and suggested that Irene, Lee Young Ji, and the production team may not have been familiar with those concerns.
The combination has received some scientific attention because laboratory research has suggested that certain compounds in durian may affect an enzyme involved in processing alcohol.
However, evidence showing that eating durian with alcohol causes severe health effects in humans remains limited, and research findings have not established that the combination itself caused Irene to become more intoxicated.
Other overseas fans nevertheless encouraged the production team to be more cautious when preparing food combinations for drinking content.
Irene has not reported experiencing a serious health problem from the filming. The discussion has mainly centered on viewers expressing concern about the combination shown in the episode and calling for greater awareness during future shoots.
