YouTuber Lee Jin Ho recently claimed that the late Kim Sae Ron and actor Kim Soo Hyun were not in a relationship in May 2019. He also released a video allegedly showing Kim Sae Ron engaging in physical affection with another man on the street. In response, Kim Sae Ron’s family has issued a rebuttal.

According to Sports Kyunghyang on April 10, Kim Sae Ron’s family asserted that around 1 AM on May 27, 2019, Kim Sae Ron was spending time with a female friend, not a man.

They added that relevant records remain on the mobile phone Kim Sae Ron used before her passing. At the time, Kim Sae Ron reportedly contacted her mother and informed her that she was at her female friend’s house. She also used smartphone apps to record footage during that time. Both pieces of data were created around 1 AM on the same day.

The family further explained that Kim Sae Ron was filming the web drama 'Love Playlist Season 4,' which aired from June to July 2019, making it unlikely for her to have dated publicly during that period.

On the previous day, Lee Jin Ho had uploaded a video to his YouTube channel Entertainment Lee Jin Ho, in which he claimed Kim Sae Ron was seen physically affectionate with a man.

Lee Jin Ho stated, “Kim Sae Ron’s face isn’t clearly shown, but the footage was taken by someone close to her who was shocked to witness the scene. The metadata confirms the video was recorded on May 27, 2019. This serves as evidence that both Kim Sae Ron and Kim Soo Hyun were seeing different people at the same time.”

He also alleged that because both Kim Sae Ron and Kim Soo Hyun were in different relationships between 2016 and 2019, the KakaoTalk messages and handwritten letters in which Kim Sae Ron implied she dated Kim Soo Hyun during her middle school years are false, suggesting she may have lied.

Previously, Kim Sae Ron’s family appeared on the YouTube channel Hoverlab (Garo Sero Research Institute), claiming that Kim Sae Ron and Kim Soo Hyun were in a relationship for six years, from November 19, 2015, when she was in her third year of middle school, until July 7, 2021. They also claimed that after leaving her agency, Kim Sae Ron received a content-certified letter demanding repayment of 700 million KRW (~482,395 USD) from Gold Medalist, which caused her severe psychological distress.

In contrast, Kim Soo Hyun’s side refuted the claim, stating that he only dated the late actress from the summer of 2019 to the fall of 2020, when she was already an adult.

SEE ALSO: Kim Bo Ra writes heartfelt letter to late friend Kim Sae Ron