The late actor Kim Sae-ron and Kim Se-eui, head of the YouTube channel Gaseyon. [Yonhap·Newsis]
The late actor Kim Sae-ron and Kim Se-eui, head of the YouTube channel Gaseyon. [Yonhap·Newsis]

Actor Kim Soo-hyun suffered serious reputational damage last year after allegations surfaced that he had dated the late actor Kim Sae-ron while she was a minor. Kim Se-eui, head of the YouTube channel Gaseyon, raised the allegations based on KakaoTalk messages purportedly exchanged between the two, including one reading, "When can I hold you and fall asleep?" Police have since confirmed, however, that those messages were sent not by Kim Soo-hyun but by a different celebrity.

According to Dispatch on Tuesday, police forensically examined four iPhones previously used by Kim Sae-ron — an iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone SE and iPhone 13 Mini — and found no evidence that she had dated Kim Soo-hyun while she was underage.

Records showed Kim Sae-ron called Kim Soo-hyun only three times on her iPhone 7, which she used from 2017 to 2018, and no material supporting a romantic relationship was found on her iPhone 8 either.

During that period, Kim Sae-ron maintained close relationships with at least four men, none of whom was Kim Soo-hyun. Conversations with family members and acquaintances also contained almost no mention of him.

Police established that the message "When can I hold you and fall asleep?" — which Gaseyon alleged Kim Soo-hyun sent to Kim Sae-ron in 2016 — was not written by Kim Soo-hyun. Gaseyon and Kim Sae-ron's bereaved family had insisted Kim Soo-hyun was the author and accused him of dating and sexually exploiting a minor.

Actor Kim Soo-hyun speaks at a press conference addressing allegations that he dated the late actor Kim Sae-ron. [Yonhap]
Actor Kim Soo-hyun speaks at a press conference addressing allegations that he dated the late actor Kim Sae-ron. [Yonhap]

The sender of the disputed message had been saved in Kim Sae-ron's phone under an anonymous label, making identification difficult. After conducting a comprehensive review of all KakaoTalk conversations on her devices — both under real names and anonymous contacts — police identified the sender as a celebrity referred to as Person A, not Kim Soo-hyun. Kim Sae-ron called Person A by name twice within the conversation, and investigators noted that the writing styles of Person A and Kim Soo-hyun were markedly different: Person A consistently followed standard Korean spelling and spacing conventions, while Kim Soo-hyun tended not to. Other individuals mentioned in the messages were also confirmed to be colleagues of Person A, with no connection to Kim Soo-hyun. Kim Sae-ron did not save Kim Soo-hyun's phone number until October 2017 — more than a year after the messages in question were sent.

Person A's name had appeared in the original messages, but Kim Sae-ron's bereaved family allegedly deleted it to obscure the sender's identity. Kim Se-eui then inserted Kim Soo-hyun's name to complete the fabrication.

When Kim Se-eui made the allegations public last year, he also released photographs as supporting evidence of the relationship. Those photos, however, were confirmed to have been taken between 2019 and 2020 — after Kim Sae-ron had already reached adulthood.


paq@heraldcorp.com