Actress Kim Sae-ron, who continuously faced financial difficulties during her lifetime, reportedly had family-related debt situations.
According to SBS Entertainment News on the 9th, Kim Sae-ron was carrying some of her family's debts during her lifetime and had been receiving financial support from acquaintances in the entertainment industry to make ends meet.
The media reported that based on court documents from 2023, the deceased was registered as one of the creditors in her father Mr. A's personal bankruptcy case. Kim Sae-ron's claim amount was around 250 million won.
Mr. A applied for personal bankruptcy in December 2020 after failing in his personal business due to COVID-19. Subsequently, in March 2023, Mr. A's bankruptcy and discharge were confirmed. Additionally, according to close associates of the deceased, the family restaurant that Kim Sae-ron invested in also closed down last year.
Amidst this, it is known that Kim Sae-ron faced even greater financial difficulties after causing an accident by crashing into a transformer while driving under the influence in May 2022. At that time, it was confirmed that Kim Sae-ron personally visited the affected businesses to apologize and worked on compensation.
Gold Medalist, Kim Sae-ron's agency, took responsibility for the compensation and settled the incident, parting ways with the deceased due to the expiration of the exclusive contract.
Later, Kim Sae-ron's lawyer appealed for leniency before the trial, stating, "Kim Sae-ron is the breadwinner for her family as a young girl. She is facing financial difficulties due to the enormous compensation payments, and Kim Sae-ron's family is also struggling to make ends meet."
In fact, after appealing for financial difficulties, Kim Sae-ron was spotted working part-time at a café.
Additionally, according to SBS Entertainment News, individuals who provided financial assistance to Kim Sae-ron included not only people from the entertainment industry but also athletes. The debt amounts ranged from millions to tens of millions of won.
Earlier, in March, Kim Sae-ron's mother refuted the suspicions surrounding the bereaved family through the YouTube channel 'Garo-Setro Research Institute', stating, "Now that Sae-ron is gone, there are tremendous false articles being created that are not worth seeing or reading, claiming that Sae-ron was the breadwinner and that the family squandered the hundreds of billions she earned."
Kim Sae-ron passed away in February. Regarding her death, the scandal involving her co-star Kim Soo-hyun from the same agency has been ongoing for about four months. Two years after the drunk driving accident, in 2022, Gold Medalist demanded Kim Sae-ron to pay 700 million won in compensation to the affected businesses, and the relationship with Kim Soo-hyun became a topic of discussion.
The bereaved family revealed that Kim Soo-hyun had dated the deceased when she was a minor. In response, Kim Soo-hyun's side refuted that they started dating after she became an adult, leading to a back-and-forth dispute.
[Ji Seung-hoon, Star Today reporter]
