![Former CNBLUE member Lee Jong-hyun. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) via Herald Business]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/12/news-p.v1.20260810.152e18780abf46f9839c657966d46ce8_P1.jpg)
Lee Jong-hyun, who left the boy band CNBLUE, has issued a fresh apology for his past conduct eight years later.
On Tuesday, Lee posted a lengthy message on his Instagram, saying he wanted to share something he had long kept to himself.
"It has now been eight years since I left the team and withdrew from the world due to my own immaturity, despite once being a member of CNBLUE," he wrote.
He added that even while living as a private citizen rather than a public figure, he had always carried a sense of guilt over the undeserved misunderstanding and criticism that the team and its members had faced because of his past actions.
Lee said some fans who had cared for him at the time may have believed the other members had turned their backs on him, but stressed that was not true at all. "It has always pained me that the members were hurt in ways they never deserved," he wrote.
He went on to say that he had feared remaining in the group would cause even greater damage and leave a lasting stain on the team, given personal failings and lapses he had been too ashamed to fully disclose at the time.
"Leaving the team was entirely my fault and my choice, and the responsibility for that was mine to bear," Lee wrote. He explained that out of shame for his actions and a sense of accountability, he had chosen to leave the entertainment industry and cut himself off from the world.
Lee was clear that the post was not written with a return to the entertainment industry in mind. He said his aim was to prevent false rumors or harm from spreading in connection with certain brands and business activities related to his current work as a private individual.
"I want to make it clear that some of the brands and products being mentioned on social media have no direct connection to me," he said.
Lee acknowledged that his personal life since leaving the industry had also been marked by hardship, but said he now intended to face his past mistakes rather than avoid them and to live openly in the world as a person of integrity.
He also directed words of apology and gratitude toward his former bandmates. "I will always sincerely support the members and CNBLUE, who gave me the most brilliant and beautiful memories during my immature years," he wrote. "I will carry that gratitude and regret deep in my heart for the rest of my life."
Lee said the post would be his last on social media and that he did not intend to communicate further online. "I will now return completely to the life of an ordinary private citizen, reflect on my past, and strive to live a proper, responsible life that I need not be ashamed of before society," he wrote.
Lee made his debut with CNBLUE in 2010. In 2019, he became embroiled in controversy when it emerged that he had watched videos and exchanged sexually inappropriate, misogynistic messages through KakaoTalk as part of the so-called Jung Joon-young group chat scandal. He left CNBLUE in August of that year and halted all entertainment activities.
Also on Tuesday, Lee shared an update on his life through social media. He said there had been years when he shut himself off from the world, after which he learned a trade, and that he had spent the past eight years working professionally in beauty industry marketing.
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