Did APRIL disband due to bullying scandal? Yena withdraws lawsuit against Hyunjoo
While APRIL has had their ups and downs, fans expected them to bounce back after the general public started to support them again after their bullying scandal. In early 2021, the girl group was embroiled in bullying scandals which was the same time there was a systematic attack where fake rumors of K-pop idols being school bullies cropped up. We first had member Naeun going on a hiatus after the accuser claimed to have been bullied by her in school. At the same time, former member Hyunjoo then accused the group to have bullied her to the extent that she left APRIL.
Fans felt 2022 would be a good year for APRIL as Naeun’s accuser finally admitted that the bullying claims against her were false. Naeun accepted the apology and dropped the defamation charges against the accuser. Some also started finding loopholes in Hyunjoo’s claims that she was being bullied by APRIL and especially member Chaewon. The members had also done an interview finding loopholes in Hyunjoo’s claims and filing lawsuits. We even had Chaewon and Jinsol going Live in November 2021 assuring fans that they were alright and taking care of themselves. Unfortunately, the group disbanded on January 28, 2022.
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Group disbands due to bullying rumors
A day after it was announced that APRIL’s label DSP merged with Mamamoo’s label RBW, the band has disbanded. The members wrote touching hand-written letters thanking fans for being by their side through thick and thin. Fans were upset at the label for not clearing up APRIL’s scandal and simply disbanding them after their forced hiatus. Well, it is member Yena who shared that it was indeed due to the bullying allegations that APRIL disbanded.
Yena says APRIL is innocent
However, Yena clarified that they were still innocent and their disbanding did not mean that they were admitting to Hyunjoo’s bullying allegations. She explained, “The name of APRIL was severely sullied, and the members and I continued to suffer scars, and so we collectively arrived at the decision with the agency to disband the group due to the fact that it would be difficult to recover from such damages.” She also added that she withdrew her defamation lawsuit against Hyunjoo not because she wasn’t confident in winning, but because she felt it was pointless.
Yena said, “In the past year, this controversy has taken a significant toll on my mental health. These events that I was accused of did not happen, but I just don't know how to prove to anyone that they did not happen, and after having learned that legal proceedings cannot help you prove your innocence, I have decided to withdraw my lawsuit.”
APRIL and DSP had filed lawsuits against Hyunjoo previously. However, she was found not guilty of defamation as the court reasoned that the former idol was just telling her own story and her perception of the events where she felt she was being bullied instead of spreading false facts.
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