Kim Soo-hyun Breaks Silence on Kim Sae-ron and HoverLab Claims
- Jin Lee
- Mar 31
- 2 min read
Mar 31, 2025
Jin Lee
On March 31, actor Kim Soo-hyun held a press conference to personally address the recent controversy surrounding his private life in connection with the late actress Kim Sae-ron. The press conference took place at the Stanford Hotel in Mapo-gu and was broadcast live.
About a month ago, in February, following Kim Sae-ron’s passing, her bereaved family and the YouTube channel representing them, HoverLab (Garosero Research Institute), revealed that Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Sae-ron had been in a romantic relationship. This led to growing speculation that Kim Soo-hyun had dated Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor, placing him at the center of public controversy. Although Kim Soo-hyun and his agency, Gold Medalist, had responded with written statements refuting the claims, HoverLab continued to release new evidence. As a result, public distrust toward Kim Soo-hyun deepened.
Today, Kim Soo-hyun stood in front of the cameras and addressed the controversy directly. He stated that he had never been in a relationship with Kim Sae-ron while she was underage. He also firmly denied the claims that Kim Sae-ron took her own life because of being neglected by him or because his agency pressured her over debts she owed.
Kim claimed that the KakaoTalk messages and other content released by HoverLab and Kim Sae-ron’s family were manipulated, presenting evidence to support his assertion. He also alleged that they have been pressuring him to admit to falsehoods, demanding he acknowledge their claims as truth. Kim stated that giving in to such coercion would be a betrayal of everyone who has ever given him their love, and thus, he could never do it.
He added, “If I did something, I’ll take responsibility for it and accept any criticism. But if I didn’t do something, then I didn’t. For the people who still believe in me, I want to make that clear. I’m not asking anyone to trust me — I will prove it.”
Kim Soo-hyun and his legal representatives have also announced plans to file a lawsuit seeking damages of approximately 12 billion KRW (around 120 billion won) against HoverLab and Kim Sae-ron’s bereaved family.
