Kim Soo-hyun apologizes, addresses controversy with late actress Kim Sae-ron

South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun recently held a press conference to clarify rumors circulating about his past relationship with late actress Kim Sae-ron.

According to Soompi, Soo-hyun first apologized to everyone who suffered due to the controversy.

"It seems that so many people are suffering because of me, and it breaks my heart that the deceased cannot rest in peace," he said in Korean.

The actor continued, "I consider myself a coward. I always seemed preoccupied with protecting what I had. I couldn't even trust the kindness shown to me, and I was always afraid of losing something, of being harmed, so I was busy running away and denying things. That's why it took me so long to stand here. I've been thinking, what if I had just told everything from the beginning? If I had, wouldn't the fans who loved me, the company staff who worked tirelessly to make even this press conference happen, wouldn't they all have suffered so much less?"

Kim Soo-hyun admitted to dating the late actress and how he cowardly denied it before.

"The deceased and I dated for about a year. But at that time, I denied the dating rumors. I think it's natural to criticize me for that choice. I understand if you can't believe what I'm saying now about what happened between the deceased and me. But since this is the only chance I have to speak like this here, I would be so grateful if you would just listen to my story once," he said.

The South Korean star explained he denied rumors to protect his co-stars, production team, and staff from his previous hit series Queen of Tears. As an actor, Soo-hyun stated, he became someone with so much to protect.

"No matter how much I think about it, I don't think I can make that decision as I please just to make myself comfortable. I thought that was the responsibility that someone who chose the life of Kim Soo Hyun has to bear. I will accept any criticism if you call that choice cowardly or selfish. And I apologize to everyone who has cared for me," he further explained.

Kim Soo-hyun then firmly denied rumors of dating Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor and became the cause of her passing.

"It is also not true that the deceased made a tragic choice because of me turning away or because my agency pressured her about her debt. Aside from the fact that we were both actors, we were both just ordinary lovers like everyone else. We met with good feelings for each other, and as time passed, we broke up. After that, we rarely contacted each other. Like most couples, we were cautious to contact each other separately after breaking up. We were both actors who were known to many people, and when she was in the same agency as me, I knew to some extent how she was doing, so it was even more so."

With regard to the drunk incident, Kim Soo-hyun said Kim Sae-ron was already dating someone else and both of them were already living their own lives.

"I always receive a lot of misunderstandings as much as I receive excessive love. Things that are not true also circulate as if they are true. I thought that was also something I had to bear. But the deceased's family is claiming that I drove the deceased to her death because I was her ex-boyfriend. They are forcing me to confess to things I didn't do. “You manipulated the deceased since she was a minor. You pressured the deceased with money and killed her. So you are a murderer,” he said.

On rumors about his agency, GOLDMEDALIST, pressuring Kim Sae-ron about her debts, Kim Soo-hyun presented an audio call as evidence of their claims.

"In a call with my agency's CEO a year ago, she said something completely different. Please listen to it once," he said.

"I learned about this through this controversy, but this is the truth about the second certificate of contents. But I don't know why the CEO of the deceased's final agency is lying, saying something completely different from the call a year ago. I will admit to anything I did wrong. I think it's a must to take responsibility for anything I have to take responsibility for. But I can't say that I did something I didn't do. The audio testimonies that the family is claiming were recorded newly after the incident was exposed."

Kim Soo-hyun then addressed rumors about the messages Kim Sae-ron's family presented, showing the actor allegedly dated the late actress when she was a minor.

"There are too many incorrect facts in this KakaoTalk to say that the deceased wrote it. The photo that was said to be from 2016 was actually from 2019. Also, the deceased could not have been wrong about the age difference between us," he stated.

He added, "In addition, she couldn't have been wrong about the name of the agency she was a part of for four years and the contract period. And the deceased only worked as an actress at our company. She never did any casting or visual directing.

"To prove this fact, I submitted the KakaoTalk conversations from 2016 and 2018, that the family submitted, and conversations that I shared with my acquaintances this year to a verification agency that scientifically analyzes statements. As a result, the agency concluded that the people in 2016 and 2018 are not the same person, as you can see."

The South Korean actor concluded with a firm stance to seek justice on his side. He also stated he wanted to protect people who were hurt due to his involvement in the controversy.

"I will accept any criticism for the choices I made. But that doesn't mean that everything that is not true becomes true. Just as I have taken verification procedures for KakaoTalk, I will take procedures to thoroughly verify everything that the family is presenting as evidence through investigative agencies. If the evidence that the family has is really true, I request that they submit all the data to the investigative agency and be verified through legal procedures."

Kim Soo-hyun's legal representative, Kim Jong-bok, shared that the actor and the agency decided to file criminal complaints and civil lawsuits against the parties involved.

The law firm filed complaints against the bereaved family members, an unidentified individual claiming to be the actress' aunt, and the operators of HoverLab Inc. for defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc.

Meanwhile, take a look back at the events surrounding the Soo-hyun-Sae-ron issue: