Kim Jung-hyun confirms Seohyun controversy not Seo Ye-ji's fault amid reports of her quitting 'Island'
At a time when Seo Ye-ji is mired in controversy, she was also nominated for Best Actor female for her role in 'It's Okay to Not be Okay', a show that has gained international attention for its portrayal of mental health. At this time, reports have also surfaced that Ye-ji has backed out from the OCN show titled 'Island' which she was supposed to work on from June.
While there has been no official confirmation regarding the same, Ye-ji's agency Gold Medalist has released a detailed statement that confirms Ye-ji had nothing to do with the controversy relating to Kim Jung-hyun and Seohyun. It was also revealed that the text messages exchanged between Jung-hyun and Ye-ji were one of their argument. The agency also said that the same was confirmed with actor Jung-hyun himself.
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The translated statement from the agency reads, "Hello, this is Gold Medalist. This is our official position on the recent reports regarding actress Seo Ye-ji. Firstly, we would like to apologize for the delay in sharing our official position. As a result of our confirmation with Kim Jung-hyun, it was clearly confirmed by him the drama-related controversy was not caused by Seo Ye-ji, and he expressed his own intentions on sharing his official position."
The agency also explained the delay in an official stance being released by Jung-hyun and said, "However, he said it would take time to share his own statement as there are many overlapping issues. Due to the continuous escalation of the controversy, we were told that it was okay to announce our position first, and make our position clear. Once again, we would like to apologize for the delay in expressing our opinion."
They also apologized for Ye-ji's absence from the test screening of her film 'Recalled' and said: "Also, we would like to apologize for the damage caused to the movie 'Recalled', the other actors, and reporters as our actress was not able to attend today's press conference and media preview," adding, "apart from Kim Jung-hyun's position, we would like to express our own position."
Explaining how only a part of the conversation was released and that the entire conversation was a back and forth between Ye-ji and Jung-hyun about each of their jealousies, the agency said, "It is hard to understand using common sense that the main actor of a drama can act without their own free will according to someone's wishes according to the controversial content released. It's practically impossible for an actor to perform and film without any free will. It was not shown in the released conversations, but there was also a conversation between Kim Jung-hyun and Seo Ye-ji where he asked her not to film a kiss scene while she was working on a different drama. Seo Ye-ji also told him 'well then you don't do that either,' and the two exchanged conversations mixed with jealousy about skinship with others."
The statement then said, "This can be seen as a common love quarrel between an actor and actress who are in a relationship while also working in the same industry. However, all actors and actresses can film normally, separating themselves from their love quarrels with their significant other. We believe Kim Jung-hyun must have had other personal circumstances as well," further adding, "Additionally, the part of the conversation that was publicized is a conversation between individuals that shouldn't have been disclosed. We think it caused a big misunderstanding because the conversation between two lovers was not kept private. As a result, we deeply regret the fact that we have caused many people to feel concerned with Seo Ye-ji's immature feelings in her relationship."
Other than the controversy with Jung-hyun, there have also been questions regarding the credibility of Ye-ji's educational background. Speaking of the same, Gold Medalist said, "We have also received a lot of questions about Seo Ye-ji's educational background recently, so we will take this opportunity to answer. Seo Ye Ji had prepared for admission to Madrid's Complutense University of Madrid, but she was unable to attend normally as she began her acting career in Korea." The agency also denied all claims of the actor being a bully during her time as a high school student and said, "Moreover, we would like to say that the additional allegations of school violence made against her are not true at all. Once again, we would like to apologize for causing concern."