Kim Soo Hyun & Kim Sae Ron: A summary of events, from dating rumours to suicide

On Feb. 16, 2025, Korean actress Kim Sae Ron was found dead at home.

The death of the 24-year-old, who had risen to popularity as a child actress, was later ruled a suicide.

Reports soon began to emerge that Sae Ron had owed 700 million won (S$652,000) to her former agency, Gold Medalist, at the time of her death.

This debt transpired after Sae Ron got involved in a drink-driving accident in 2022, in which she crashed her vehicle into a roadside electrical transformer in Seoul.

Cancelled contracts and compensation claims to local businesses amounted to a debt of 700 million won, which Gold Medalist paid on her behalf.

A photo was later published of her and Korean actor Kim Soo Hyun, leading to rumours that they had been in a relationship.

It came to light that the date of Sae Ron's suicide, Feb. 16, was also Soo Hyun's birthday.

Who are Kim Sae Ron and Kim Soo Hyun?

Sae Ron was an actress who began her career in 2001 as a child model.

After acting in the 2009 film "A Brand New Life", she became the youngest actress to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival.

For her film work, she won several awards at the Korean Film Awards and Buil Film Awards, and was also nominated for Best New Actress in the film category of the prestigious Baeksang Arts Award.

Soo Hyun is one of Korea's most prominent and highest-paid actors, having starred in multiple popular K-dramas such as "My Love from the Star", "It's Okay Not To Be Okay", and "Queen of Tears".

His acting work has won him numerous accolades, including four Baeksang Arts Awards.

Until 2022, both actors were represented by Gold Medalist, which was reportedly founded by a relative of Soo Hyun's.

Dating rumours

Despite her earlier acting success, Sae Ron struggled to find work as an actress after her drink-driving incident.

To pay off her debts, she had to work several part-time jobs, including at a cafe in Seongsu-dong and as a waitress at a Gangnam pub, according to Soompi.

In December 2022, her contract with Gold Medalist came to an end and she left the agency.

But her debt remained unpaid.

In March 2024, Sae Ron posted a photo of herself on Instagram posing with Soo Hyun.

She deleted the photo within minutes.

Gold Medalist denied the dating rumours that subsequently emerged.

The agency claimed it was not aware of the actress's intentions in posting the photo.

Exposé

Fast forward to a few weeks after Sae Ron's death.

On Mar. 10, 2025, Korean YouTube channel Garosero Institute published an exposé asserting that the actress had been in a relationship with Korean actor Kim Soo Hyun for six years.

This relationship began when she was 15 and he was 27, the channel claimed. 

It featured testimony that allegedly came from one of Sae Ron's aunts.

In response, Gold Medalist denied these allegations.

It said that these were "clearly false and baseless", and vowed to pursue "the strongest possible legal actions" against Garosero for "spreading falsehoods".

But the controversy continued to intensify as Garosero released additional materials provided by the late actress's family.

These included more photos of the two actors, and a letter written by Soo Hyun to Sae Ron when he was in the military, in which he wrote that he missed her and called her "Saeronero".

At the time that the letter was written, Sae Ron was 17 years old and Soo Hyun was 30.

The channel also published a text message from Sae Ron, dated Mar. 19, 2024, in which she pleaded for "some time" to pay back the debt she owed to Gold Medalist.

"Oppa, it’s Sae Ron. I received the certified letter. You’re suing me... I’ve been preparing for my return to acting, and I plan to repay you gradually from each project. It’s not that I won’t pay, but I can’t manage 700 million won (S$643,000) all at once. Please give me some time. I’m begging you, please help me.”

It went unanswered.

According to Sae Ron's relative, the actress had suddenly received a lawyer's letter demanding repayment of the 700 million won debt in 2024.

This was despite the agency having allegedly not specified a fixed repayment date earlier.

Sae Ron then tried to reach out to Soo Hyun, including texting him using her cousin's number, but never received a response.

A copy of the lawyer's letter, demanding payment from Sae Ron and threatening civil and criminal legal action if not done, was later published by Korean news outlet Dispatch.

Sae Ron responded by selling off most of her assets, including her car and convertible bonds, in an attempt to pay off her debt.

But she was only able to raise about 200 million won — a fraction of her full debt.

In desperation, she uploaded the Instagram Story of the two of them posing together in March 2024, in an attempt to get her former lover to respond to her.

Addressing allegations

In a statement to Dispatch, Gold Medalist said that it was "just following basic procedures" in case it was accused of embezzlement.

It claimed that the lawyer's letter was merely a formality.

"When we lent her the money, we knew we couldn't get such a large sum back from Sae Ron. We told her she could pay us back when she had the money," the agency said.

It later published a full statement on Mar. 14, addressing the allegations in full.

The agency claimed that while the duo had indeed been in a relationship, they had only begun to date when Sae Ron was 19 and Soo Hyun was 31.

"It is not true that Soo Hyun dated Sae Ron when she was a minor," the agency, Gold Medalist, said in its statement according to Korean media News1.

It did not address the age gap between the two actors.

The agency further explained that the photos published by Garosero were taken in 2019 and 2020, when the actress was legally an adult.

Regarding the letter sent to Sae Ron while Soo Hyun was in the military, Gold Medalist claimed that they were merely "close acquaintances".

It said:

"The expression 'I miss you' is a casual expression that a soldier using while serving in the military would use to tell his close acquaintances."

More allegations

The agency denied that Soo Hyun had ignored Sae Ron when she was facing financial difficulties.

It reiterated that it had realised that it was "unrealistic" for Sae Ron to repay the debt, and had hence written it off as bad debt.

After doing so, it had to "follow the legal procedures", the agency said.

"This was the reason why we sent a certified letter to Sae Ron."

The agency also insisted that the debt problem was entirely between the entity and Sae Ron, and that the actor "has never lent money to Sae Ron, nor has he ever demanded repayment".

It had advised Soo Hyun not to respond to the late actress's text, and instead decided that the agency would contact Sae Ron's agency with a lawyer to "amicably avoid a misunderstanding".

In March 2024, the debt was written off and the agency stopped demanding payment for the debt.

As such, it is "difficult to believe that [Sae Ron's] cause of death a year later was linked to this. It is overly malicious speculation", the agency said.

"Psychological pressure"

In its statement, Gold Medalist also said that Soo Hyun has "showed signs of rapid psychological instability" as of Mar. 14.

"Since Garosero's report, Soo Hyun has been in a state of extreme confusion due to claims that he was the cause of Sae Ron's sudden death," the agency said.

The agency also criticised members of the media, who surrounded the company building after news broke, for putting "psychological pressure" on the actor.

It accused Garosero of reporting "numerous false facts" in its video.

"The extremely private lives of two people have been forcibly revealed by others...and spread with countless rumours and speculation," Gold Medalist said.

"This is extremely painful for Soo Hyun and those around him."

Unanswered questions

But some questions remain.

While Gold Medalist has claimed that the debt situation was purely between the agency and Sae Ron, it's widely believed that the agency was founded by one of Soo Hyun's relatives.

Why would Sae Ron have written her text appeal to Soo Hyun, if the two entities were completely separate?

Secondly, there's the letter that Soo Hyun wrote to Sae Ron during his military service, in which he wrote that he missed her.

Were they really just acquaintances?

And then there's the age gap.

Even if Sae Ron was legally an adult at that point, how ethical would it have been for a 31-year-old man to be dating a 19-year-old?

Fourthly and finally — if the debt was entirely written off, and no bad blood remained — Sae Ron's death still happened on Soo Hyun's birthday.

Could it really have been a coincidence?

Top image from Garosero, and Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Sae Ron/Instagram