Kim Seon-ho is currently wrapped in drama. No, not K-drama — real-life drama, which involves past issues recently brought to light by his ex-girlfriend. As we write this, social media is abuzz with different opinions and #ProtectKimSeonHo is trending on Twitter.
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Kim Seon-ho and the issue of his ex-girlfriend
It all started on 17 Oct 2021, Sunday, when a social media post believed to be written by Kim Seon-ho’s ex-girlfriend spread like wildfire. In the post, the ex-girlfriend revealed that Kim Seon-ho had urged her to terminate her pregnancy while they were dating in 2020. The alleged reason for this was because Kim Seon-ho didn’t have ₩900 million to pay for damages if she did have the baby. (It turns out, even he did, Kim Seon-ho wouldn’t need to pay that much in the first place.)
During their relationship, he gave her false promises about starting a life together. But when the ex-girlfriend had the abortion, Kim Seon-ho didn’t accompany her and sent his friend to be with her instead. Afterwards, the Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha star allegedly acted differently towards her and broke up with her via phone call.
At that time, these claims were all alleged but they were already dealing damages to Kim Seon-ho’s celebrity status. On 18 Oct, a fan noticed that the actor’s endorsements, such as Domino Pizza, Foodbucket, and Canon, had taken down their photos of Kim Seon-ho on Instagram.
Kim Seon-ho breaks his silence
While fans were holding on to hope that the abortion rumour about their beloved oppa was nothing more than hearsay, they received a rude awakening today on 20 Oct 2021, Wednesday.
Kim Seon-ho himself issued a statement confirming that what was written was actually the truth and apologised to his ex-girlfriend and for his behaviour.
The most important part of his statement reads as follows: “I met her with good intentions. In that process, I hurt her due to my carelessness and inconsiderate actions. I wanted to meet and apologise to her directly, but I am not able to properly convey the apology now and am waiting for that time to come. For now, I would like to genuinely apologise to her through this statement. I apologise for also disappointing all of those who trusted and supported me until the end. It was all thanks to those who supported me that I was able to become the actor Kim Seon-ho, but I had forgotten that.”
The actor’s agency released a similar statement of apology about the Kim Seon-ho scandal, “We apologise for causing concern to many with actor Kim Seon-ho’s personal matters. We would like to apologise to all those who were disappointed and troubled by this issue.”
The aftermath
Upon Kim Seon-ho’s statement, he also decided to leave the Korean reality-variety show 1 Night 2 Days. Some fans were actually demanding his resignation on social media, while others expressed either disappointment or compassion towards Kim Seon-ho.
#ProtectKimSeonHo trends on Twitter
This Twitter user made a good point about stan culture
Another one expressed complete disgust that Kim Seon-ho’s fans were still defending him
Unsurprisingly, there are those who refuse to unfollow Kim Seon-ho
This fan was disappointed too but…
And some fans just don’t want TMI
Regardless of the fans’ reactions though, the Kim Seon-ho scandal definitely affected his endorsements as brands like 11Street, Nau, and La Roche-Posay have removed photos of him from their official websites.
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If you were a Kim Seon-ho fan, would you want to be ignorant of the claims his ex-girlfriend made about his abusive behaviour? Would you still support him regardless? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!