SEOUL (ANN/THE KOREA HERALD) – Kim Soo-hyun, the 37-year-old Hallyu star at the centre of swirling rumors about his alleged relationship with Kim Sae-ron, held a press conference on Monday to emphatically state that he did not date her when she was a minor and that he had no involvement in her death.

At a press conference on Monday at a hotel in Sangam-dong, Seoul, Kim entered with a stiff walk and a tense expression.

“I think of myself as a coward. I always seemed to be too focused on protecting what I had,” Kim said, his voice taut. “I couldn’t even trust the goodwill directed toward me. Always afraid of losing something or being hurt, it took me a long time to stand here.”

Kim went on to acknowledge that he dated Kim Sae-ron, who was born in July 2000, in 2019 for about a year.

Asked why he had denied their relationship a year ago in March 2024 after dating rumors surfaced following Kim Sae-ron’s social media post featuring a photo of them together, the actor explained that with “Queen of Tears” airing at the time, he wanted to protect those around him.

“After becoming an actor, I received an overwhelming amount of love. I was someone who didn’t have much, but suddenly, I became someone with too much to protect,” Kim said.

“Even while ‘Queen of Tears’ was airing, as a lead actor, there were so many things I had to protect. I kept wondering: What would happen if I admitted to having been in a relationship with someone years ago? How would it affect the actors performing alongside me, the staff staying up all night on set, the production company putting everything on the line for this project and the colleagues at my agency? Every time I faced a conflict between being Kim Soo-hyun the person and Kim Soo-hyun the star, I always ended up making choices as Kim Soo-hyun the star.”

The actor stated that even if given the chance again, he would make the same choice, as he believed he should not make a choice simply to ease his own heart.

Kim Soo-hyun further clarified that he did not date Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor. He also emphasized that her death in February was not a result of his turning away from her or his agency pressuring her over debts she had incurred.

“I am being pressured to confess to things I never did. They say, ‘You manipulated the deceased since she was a minor.’ ‘You pressured her with money and drove her to her death.’ ‘So, you are a murderer,’” Kim Soo-hyun said through sobs, denying the allegations against him.

He refuted KakaoTalk messages that had been presented by Kim Sae-ron’s bereaved family as evidence, referring to a “scientific analysis” of KakaoTalk conversations purportedly from 2016 and 2018.

Kim Soo-hyun contended that the bereaved family of Kim Sae-ron fabricated the KakaoTalk conversations, and that the individual involved in the exchanges in 2016 and 2018 was not him. He said this was confirmed through a verification institution that had scientifically analyzed the KakaoTalk statements at his request.

Immediately after the press conference, Kim Jong-bok, an attorney from LKB & Partners and Kim’s legal representative, announced that Kim Soo-hyun and Gold Medalist, his agency, had filed a defamation suit against the bereaved family of Kim Sae-ron, along with a woman who has claimed to be Kim Sae-ron’s aunt and the operator of HoverLab, a far-right YouTube channel.

The press conference came in the wake of recent claims from HoverLab that allege that Kim Soo-hyun dated Kim Sae-ron for six years, starting in 2015 when he was 27 and she was 15. HoverLab has also accused Kim and his agency of driving Kim Sae-ron to her death, claiming they pressured her to repay a debt of KRW700 million owed to the company.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin