Kim Soo Hyun's agency says he dated Kim Sae Ron when she was 19 to 20, says he's now experiencing 'psychological pressure'

Kim Soo Hyun's agency issued a statement on Mar. 14 confirming that the Korean actor had indeed been in a relationship with late actress Kim Sae Ron.

But it denied that she had been a minor at the time.

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

The agency said the duo had dated when she was an adult, from the summer of 2019 to the fall of 2020.

Kim Sae Ron would have been 19 and 20 at that time, while Kim Soo Hyun would have been 31 and 32.

Photos and letters

The agency also addressed a photo posted by Kim Sae Ron of herself posing with Kim Soo Hyun on Instagram last March.

She had deleted the photos within minutes, and the agency had denied the dating rumours at the time.

In its statement, Gold Medalist said the photo — as well as another posted by YouTube channel Garosero Institute in its exposé following the actress's suicide — was taken in 2020.

It explained that the clothes that Kim Sae Ron had been wearing in the photo was released only in 2019.

"So Garosero's claim that the photo was taken in 2016, when Kim Sae Ron was a minor, is impossible to establish," the agency said.

The agency also said a letter that Kim Soo Hyun sent to Kim Sae Ron while he was serving the military was simply a letter "to his close acquaintances" while he was "adjusting to military life".

He had written that he missed her and called her "Saeronero" — which the agency said was her social media handle rather than a personal nickname.

It also asserted: "The expression 'I miss you' is a casual expression that a soldier using while serving in the military would use with close acquaintances."

Kim Soo Hyun enlisted in the military in October 2017, when Kim Sae Ron was 17 years old.

Financial problems

In its exposé, Garasero suggested that Kim Soo Hyun had ignored Kim Sae Ron's financial problems.

After Kim Sae Ron's drink driving incident in 2022, the agency — co-founded by Kim Soo Hyun's relative — had covered the S$643,000 compensation but apparently later demanded repayment.

The YouTube channel shared a text messages sent by the actress to Kim Soo Hyun, in which she pleaded for "some time" to repay her debt to the agency.

“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.”

The message, dated Mar. 19, 2024, went unanswered.

Gold Medalist said in its statement that it had realised after a while that "despite her many efforts", Kim Sae Ron would not be able to repay her debt.

After marking the compensation paid as bad debt, it had to "follow the legal procedures", it said.

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

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

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

Psychological pressure

Gold Medalist also said that as of the morning of Mar. 14, Kim Soo Hyun has "showed signs of rapid psychological instability" and is now resting.

It said that media attention following Garasero's exposé has also caused "psychological pressure" on the actor.

It alleged that Garosero had "distorted the truth" and revealed the "extremely private matters of two people... without their consent".

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

Kim Sae Ron was found dead at the age of 24 at her home in Seoul on Feb. 16, 2025.

Feb. 16 is also Kim Soo Hyun's birthday.

The late Kim was represented by Gold Medalist from 2019 to 2022, until her drink-driving controversy.

Upon the initial publication of the exposé, Gold Medalist denied the dating allegations.

It called the allegations "clearly false and baseless" and vowed to pursue "the strongest possible legal actions" against Garosero for "spreading falsehoods".

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Top image from Garosero, Gold Medalist, and Kim Soo Hyun/Instagram