Prada has severed ties with South Korean actor Kim Soo Hyun, who’s on the heart of a rapidly evolving controversy following the suicide of Kim Sae-Ron, an actress he was romantically concerned with.
“It has been mutually determined to finish the collaboration between Prada and Kim Soo Hyun,” Prada mentioned in a short assertion.
The 37-year-old actor was named a Prada model ambassador in January and attended the model’s fall 2025 males’s ready-to-wear runway present in Milan.
The Ok-drama star, recognized for his roles in “Dream Excessive” and “Moon Embracing the Solar,” counts over 20 million followers on Instagram.
Kim Soo Hyun’s repute and fame took a dramatic hit this week when Hoverlab, a South Korean information commentary website on YouTube, claimed that the actor and Kim Sae-ron had been in a six-year relationship for the reason that feminine Kim was 15 years outdated. To again up the claims, Hoverlab launched pictures exhibiting Kim Soo Hyun kissing Kim Sae-ron on the cheek. The livestreamed packages attracted nearly 4 million views on YouTube.
Kim Sae-ron, who started her profession as a baby actor, went on to achieve business recognition together with her roles in movies akin to “The Man From Nowhere” and “The Neighbors.”
Her promising profession took a flip in 2022 after a drunk driving incident, after which she struggled to search out jobs and retreated from the general public eye.
Kim Sae-ron’s final function was within the Netflix sequence “Bloodhounds.” Nevertheless, her cameo has been edited out within the aftermath of the DUI conviction.
Based on Hoverlab stories, Kim Sae-ron needed to pay a 700 million gained, or $481,000, positive to compensate affected events after the accident, which she allegedly borrowed from Gold Medalist. Nevertheless, she was allegedly unable to repay the quantity and confronted mounting stress from the company, which occurred to be the co-founded by Kim Soo Hyun and his cousin.
Hoverlab stories that Kim Sae-ron allegedly reached out to Kim Soo-hyun in March 2024, hoping to postpone the fee date. Nevertheless, the actor didn’t reply to her plea for assist, in response to a screenshot of the message that Hoverlab obtained from Kim Sae-ron’s household.
Final month, she was discovered useless at her house. She was 24 years outdated and police dominated her loss of life as suicide.
Gold Medalist, which additionally manages Kim Soo Hyun, initially issued an announcement firmly refuting the claims and vowed to take “the strongest potential authorized motion in opposition to those that unfold lies.” Nevertheless, backlash in opposition to Kim Soo Hyun torpedoed as netizens found that Kim Soo Hyun was attending G-Dragon’s listening occasion on Feb. 25, which was not lengthy after Kim Sae-ron’s loss of life.
Underneath stress, the company adopted up with an announcement admitting that the 2 had been in a consensual relationship “from the summer season of 2019 to the autumn of 2020 after she turned a authorized grownup,” learn the assertion.
The assertion added that Kim Soo Hyun had proven indicators of “extreme psychological misery” because of the accusations.
“Kim has suffered excessive confusion on account of claims blaming him for the actress’s sudden loss of life. Folks with cameras have additionally been loitering round his residence, including to the psychological stress,” the company mentioned.
The controversy involving Kim Soo Hyun has put over a dozen manufacturers he represents in a troublesome place as they danger potential client backlash.
In the previous few days, manufacturers such because the bakery chain Tous Les Jours, the grocery store chain Homeplus, and the sportswear firm K2 Korea pulled adverts of the actor from its official channels.
