South Korean superstar Kim Soo Hyun broke down as he addressed the media for the first time amid the ongoing Kim Sae-ron dating scandal. While he admitted he dated the late actress for a year, he refused the claims that they were together when she was a minor. And even as he cried his eyes out during the press conference, netizens seem to not be convinced, calling the entire episode 'scripted' and labelling him as the 'King Of Tears'.
On Monday, Soo Hyun issued his first statement on the entire scandal and said that while he has been wrong on several fronts, such as in not accepting his relationship with Sae-ron, he was now being framed as a pedophile and murderer by the late actress' family, and he was not ready to accept the tags. He also accused Sae-ron's family of fabricating lies, fake screenshots and audio files to tarnish his image, and slapped them with a Rs 77 crore defamation notice.
The Queen of Tears actor broke down and cried inconsolably as he read out his statement during the press conference, saying, "For everyone who still believes in me, I want to make this one thing clear. I wonāt ask you to trust me, I will prove it to you."
However, netizens slammed the actor for trying to manipulate the audience with what they called "fake tears" and "emotional drama". "Keep this in mind: heās an actor. Actors are good at their jobs for a reason," a netizen wrote, while another commented, "I could literally see in his expression how he was gathering the tears and going into an 'acting mode', it was so obvious to me how fake they were." A Redditor wrote, "Literally an episode of Queen of Tears right here, itās so forced", and another dropped an edited photo of the actor crying along with the caption, "King of Tears".
What is the Kim Sae-ron dating scandal?
For those unversed, Sae-ron died by suicide on February 16, post which her family accused Soo Hyun of dating her when she was a minor, grooming her, exploiting her and then threatening her for money. They claimed that Soo Hyun's wrongdoings caused her immense distress, which ultimately pushed her to end her life.
The family claimed that Soo Hyun dated Sae-ron when she was only 15 and he was 29. They also released screenshots of their chats in which the It's Okay To Not Be Okay actor allegedly sent sexually suggestive messages to a minor Sae-ron.
However, Soo Hyun denied all the claims, but he admitted on Monday that he dated Sae-ron for a year around 2019, and he did not admit it when the news broke much later as he was scared it would impact his image and his work.
