Red Velvet's Irene apologizes for abusing editor, fans not surprised and say she's 'gonna take a long hiatus'
On October 20, editor Kang Kook-hwa had shared a long post on social media about what it must feel like to be oppressed by a person in a powerful position by referring to the 2015 'nut rage' incident which saw the vice president of Korean Air Heather Cho get sued for harassing an employee onboard a flight for serving her peanuts incorrectly. Kook-hwa also referred to the former TV Chosun president's elementary school-going daughter Bang Jung-ho throwing a tantrum and abusing her chauffeur verbally and he was 50 years at the time. Then, the editor referred to an incident in the present about herself and how she was abused by a star who did not even give her a chance to explain herself.
In the long post, the editor has not specifically explained why the star had lost their temper but had expanded on how the star mistreated her for about 20 minutes. In the note, she wrote, "I came to wonder how an individual is raised to become like that. I've been deeply thinking about it, but today, I've been thoroughly trampled by this one person, and I became the position of the abused."
Further describing the star, she wrote, "Proven to be disqualified from being human + a puppet living behind a smiling mask + known to be a warm person by friends + an 'adult child' who lacks character + has a sense of entitlement + has the stupidity that reveals all the deficiencies transparently to the person they meet for the first time."
According to the translation by AllKPop, the post also indicates that this celebrity has a reputation. She wrote, "I should have prepared myself from the stories I've heard before I met her. But today, I became speechless as this person stung me with her words that are like electric needles. I had no choice but to stand still with my hands, feet, and even my brain tied together. I had to stand still in front of that repulsive face that was hysterically throwing a fit at me. I had to stand there like a fool without anything I could do. This person did not give me time to understand the situation or even seek understanding from this person. This person didn't even give me a chance to explain because she can't hear anything."
The post was ended with hashtags #Monster and #Psycho because of which many had assumed, especially on Naver, that the star in question could either be Irene or Seulgi after the recent song that the two of them worked on. However, the moment fans began speculating the same, colleagues and other artists who worked with Seulgi came to her defense. However, no one stood up for Irene and fans have since found that strange.
On Oct 22, Irene took to her social media handle to apologize and also confessed to the fact that she was the one who was mentioned in the editor's note. Irene wrote, "This is Irene. I sincerely apologize for hurting the stylist with my foolish attitude and careless words and actions. I received a lot of help from people who gave their effort for me to get to where I am now, and I regret that I hurt them greatly with my immature behavior. This incident has made me look back on the past, and I'm very ashamed of my poor words and actions, and I feel the importance of staff members once again."
She ended by saying, "I'll think and act more carefully, so this does not happen again. I'm truly sorry to the fans who support me and for causing worry because of this incident."
Since Irene posted the apology, fans have been sharing their opinions about the incident and the one thing all of them seem to have noticed is how Irene doesn't have anyone to defend her like Seulgi.
One fan wrote on Reddit, "I didn’t want to believe this could be her, but all the evidence was pointing to it being Irene. What’s interesting is that when articles started popping up on Naver that the person the stylist exposed could’ve been either Irene or Seulgi (because of the #monster hashtag) there were editors who took to their social media to immediately clear Seulgi’s name but not one person did it for Irene. Given the amount of other editors (ones from GQ and Vogue Korea prominently), former SM staff, RV stylists, and backup dancers etc have liked the original expose post, this is 100%, not a one-time thing. She’s been this way for a while now."
This fan further explained, "The editor who made the post said she had an audio recording of everything Irene said to her which she will release if the ‘person in question’ lies. SM and Irene probably only apologized so that the recording doesn’t come to light. I truly hope Irene has learnt from this, but considering the amount of people who seem to have bad experiences with her, I think this is a case of ‘apologize because I got caught’."
Many fans also agree that Irene's swift apology only means that the voice recording that the editor noted in the post is possibly real and neither Red Velvet nor their agency wants it to surface. One fan wrote, "It really is. Her swift apology implies that the recording is real and the contents within it is something (e.g. real dehumanizing verbal abuse) that SM and her do not want released. I think Irene's gonna take a long hiatus now."
One fan even wondered how the publicity for her movie will now be handled and wrote, "I’m really curious as to how they’re going to handle her movie, I’ve no idea when it comes out but it appears to be somewhat soon." Another fan spoke about how her role in the film, that of a hardworking student, who aspires to become an anchor will not mix well with her real life image. This fan wrote, "Her character in that movie being a college student studying hard to be an anchorwoman and working a humble job like a fast-food worker in the mean time won't mix well with her exposed arrogant diva IRL personality."