Actress Kim Hieora (34) has officially addressed the rumors surrounding her involvement in school bullying and being part of a notorious group.
On the 6th, Kim Hieora's agency, Gram Entertainment, expressed, "We deeply regret the sudden news about actress Kim Hieora that has caused concern," and distributed a press release to clarify their stance.
The agency specifically stated, "It's true that during her time at Sangji Girls' Middle School, Kim Hieora joined a cafe named 'Big Sangji' created among friends and hung out with its members." However, they firmly denied the bullying allegations, emphasizing, "Apart from this, all the suspicions reported or raised by the media are not true."
Earlier that day, Dispatch reported that Kim Hieora was a member of a notorious group known as 'Big Sangji' during her time at Sangji Girls' Middle School in Wonju, Gangwon Province, sparking controversy over her alleged involvement in school bullying.
Furthermore, Dispatch revealed that they had completed their investigation into Kim Hieora's bullying allegations in June. However, the actress, concerned about her ongoing cable channel tvN drama 'The Uncanny Counter 2: Counter Punch', had requested Dispatch to withhold the story, saying, "I don't want my personal matters to negatively affect the drama." Kim Hieora played the role of Gelly Choi in the drama, which began on July 29th and concluded on the 3rd.
Interestingly, Kim Hieora also portrayed a school bully named Lee Sa-ra in the Netflix series 'The Glory Part 1'.
Following is the full statement:
Hello, this is Gram Entertainment, Kim Hieora's agency.
More than anything, we are sorry to have caused concern to many people with the sudden news related to Kim Hieora that was released today.
Regarding the media's report on Kim Hieora, we would like to convey our agency's position as follows.
First of all, we would like to honestly tell you how the report about Kim Hieora was released and the allegations against her that were raised in the report.
It's true Kim Hieora was joined an online school community called Big Sangji with her friends when she was a student at Sangji Girls' Middle School, and she did hang out with members from that group.
However, we would like to clarify that all other allegations reported and raised by the media are not true.
The media company that released the report contacted us, letting us know there was a tip-off related to Kim Hieora. They wanted us to review it before publishing it. The memories from both Kim Hieora and the informant were unclear, so they provided an opportunity for Kim Hieora to explain her side of the story. Kim Hieora visited the media outlet without any company officials joining her and honestly answered questions from the media outlet with three of their reporters.
Contrary to the nature of the title of the article, which the media outlet released today, Kim Hieora neither acknowledged nor took part in such bullying activities. She has never been involved in school violence. We would like to say one more time that this is what Kim Hieora said when she talked with the media outlet.
In addition, both the media outlet and Kim Hieora learned that the comments provided by the informant resulted from misunderstandings and mistakes in their recollection of events. The informant resolved the misunderstandings, apologized to Kim Hieora, and informed the media outlet of this. Because of this, we thought things wrapped up due to the misunderstandings.
Contrary to the media's report, Big Sangji waas not a group for bullies. There were many ordinary students who were also part of the group. We will refute this claim from the media outlet in detail in the future.
Kim Hieora explained this to the reporters when she met with them and that fact remains unchanged even now.
Unfortunately though, the media outlet published a speculative article based on reports that they gathered.
Once again, Kim Hieora was never a bully at school and she has never admitted to or participated in school violence. We will actively clarify the points made in the speculative report and related accusations by releasing more details and information in the future.
Finally, we urge you to stop spreading and reproducing this indiscriminate speculation and false information. We will take strong legal action against malicious posts that undermine the reputation of our actors.
We sincerely ask media officials to refrain from speculative reports in the future and spologize once more for disappointing many people today.
Thank you for waiting this long time.
- Gram Entertainment
