PUBLISHED ONOctober 13, 2026 12:00 PMBYEsther LamKim Soo-hyun has been cleared of further allegations that he sent inappropriate text messages to late actress Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor, according to South Korean police.
A report by Korean media outlet Dispatch on Oct 13 said that the police conducted a forensic examination of the electronic devices used by Sae-ron and recovered past conversations, photographs and other data.
The results of the investigation showed that screenshots of text messages between Sae-ron and another person were doctored to make it appear Soo-hyun was the other party.
Sae-ron died of suicide at the age of 24 in February 2025.
On March 11, 2025, YouTube channel HoverLab, also known as Garo Sero Institute, released intimate photos of Soo-hyun and Sae-ron received from the latter's family, claiming the two dated when she was a minor. Soo-hyun was cleared of those allegations in May this year.
Later in March 2025, Sae-ron's family revealed screenshots of text messages allegedly between her and Soo-hyun from June 2016. That year, they would have been aged 16 and 28 respectively.
In the alleged conversation, Soo-hyun was purportedly shown asking: "When can I fall asleep with you in my arms? I'll really get a good night's sleep then," to which Sae-ron replied: "I'll do it when I want to."
Soo-hyun, who was at the height of his popularity then after his hit drama Queen of Tears (2024), explained through his management agency Gold Medalist that he had been in a relationship with Sae-ron from summer 2019 to autumn 2020, when she was an adult.
He also said the testimonies and evidence released by HoverLab were false. His lawyers said then that they had sued those involved for damages.
Investigators subsequently compared speech patterns, spelling and other writing habits from the recovered conversations before concluding that the message sender was not Soo-hyun but another male celebrity identified as A.
According to Dispatch, the original conversation also showed Sae-ron referring to A by his real name and mentioning his colleagues. The report claimed Sae-ron's family removed A's name and HoverLab changed the sender's name to Soo-hyun's.
Police reportedly found no evidence that Soo-hyun and Sae-ron were romantically involved at that time. They also found that Sae-ron maintained close relationships with at least four other men during that period.
Soo-hyun has slowly resumed public activities this year with a photo shoot for a Philippine fashion brand in July.
He made his first television appearance since the controversy in August as a special guest for an Indonesian live show and his first official public appearance in South Korea at The Fact Music Awards 2026 in Busan in September, followed by a fan-meet in Manila earlier this month.
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