South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun has filed a criminal lawsuit against the family of late actress Kim Sae-ron and Korean YouTube channel HoverLab Inc.
Earlier this month, HoverLab had allegedly worked with induvial claiming to be members of Kim Sae-ron’s family. The two parties released multiple videos where they accused Kim Soo-hyun of being romantically involved with the late actress, starting from when she was 15 years old and he was 27 years old.
Kim Soo-hyun had initially denied any romantic involvement between him and Kim Sae-ron in a statement published on March 11. However, Kim Soo-hyun and his agency Gold Medalist would later issue a second statement days later, where it confirmed that the pair had dated, but claimed that it only occurred when she was an adult.
A law firm representing Kim’s agency Gold Medalist announced on March 20 that it has filed the complaint against HoverLab Inc’s operator and Kim Sae-ron’s family, accusing them of distributing private photos in violation of a South Korean law against sexual crimes. The photos were published by Kim Sae-ron’s family via the YouTube channel as proof of the pair’s romantic relationship.
The firm claimed the images shared by both parties were “photos taken when actor Kim Soo-hyun and the late actress Kim Sae-ron, who was an adult, were dating”. It added that they were “sexually insulting and should never have been released to the public”, per The Korea Times.
Gold Medalist wrote that it initially “refrained from taking legal action against the bereaved families of the late actress with a heart of mourning”, however “the act of distributing photos of Kim Soo-hyun’s body without permission is not only a serious act that cannot be ignored, but runs a risk of repetition in the future”.
Aside from dating rumours, Kim Soo-hyun has also been accused of ignoring Kim Sae-ron’s attempts to contact him last year after she was served a notice by his agency, Gold Medalist, which she was also signed to until late 2022. The notice demanded she pay the company ₩700million for damages in relation to her DUI incident in 2022.
The actress passed early last month at the age 24, with authorities treating her death as a suicide.