As multiple rumors continued surrounding actor Lee Yi-kyung's exit process from MBC's Hangout With Yoo, his agency once again issued a clarification.
Earlier, Lee Yi-kyung became the center of controversy after being embroiled in personal life rumors following an SNS exposé by a person who claimed to be German. His agency immediately said "All content is false, and we are proceeding with civil and criminal action against the spread of false information." Lee Yi-kyung also took a tough stance, saying "A seizure and search procedure is underway, and the complaint has already been filed. We will pursue this to the end until the suspect is identified."
As a result of the controversy, Lee Yi-kyung left MBC's Hangout With Yoo without a farewell and his planned joining of KBS2's The Return of SUPERMAN was also canceled. At the time, Yu Jae-seok addressed the situation on air, saying "He left because he has many drama and movie schedules," but the controversy spread after Lee Yi-kyung expressed dissatisfaction on SNS, saying "I was urged to leave variety shows and we chose to leave voluntarily."
After Lee Yi-kyung's exposé, the production team said "Given that the personal life rumor spread through media is developing, and considering the nature of a variety program that must make viewers laugh every week, we judged it difficult for him to continue," and stated that the production team had first urged the agency to ask him to leave as Lee Yi-kyung mentioned. The production team also said it would accept the agency's choice even if the agency publicized that it had urged him to leave, but later explained that the agency contacted them saying it would choose voluntary withdrawal due to schedule conflicts.
Hangout With Yoo's side asked people to refrain from criticizing or speculating about other cast members, saying, "From the production team's position of having urged the exit, we thought it was the minimum courtesy for Lee Yi-kyung to ask the cast to mention voluntary withdrawal due to schedules agreed with the agency, and we conveyed this on air. The cast only followed our request as a consideration for Lee Yi-kyung."
However, this led to criticism from some viewers that Yu Jae-seok 'did not protect a junior.' In particular, speculation grew that Lee Yi-kyung deliberately targeted Yu Jae-seok because Lee Yi-kyung omitted Yu Jae-seok when mentioning members of Hangout With Yoo during his award acceptance speech.
In response, the agency said, "The acceptance speech was simply an honest expression of gratitude and reflections at an official event after a long time. There was no intention to target a particular person, and it is regrettable that it is being discussed as a controversy."
On the 16th, a YouTube channel further stirred the controversy by claiming that during the process of coordinating opinions between the production team and Lee Yi-kyung over his exit from Hangout With Yoo, when the production team said it was "a decision made by higher-ups," Lee Yi-kyung's side repeatedly asked, "Who are the higher-ups, do you mean Yu Jae-seok?"
As the controversy intensified, Lee Yi-kyung's side clarified again, saying, "Our company received notice of exit at a meeting with the Hangout With Yoo production team, and at that time the production team conveyed that 'this is a matter decided above and will not be reversed.' We clearly state that our company only expressed regret at the production team's decision and that we never asked or questioned whether that decision reflected Yu Jae-seok's opinion."
They also emphasized, "On the day the exit notice was given, Lee Yi-kyung had a conversation with Yu Jae-seok in which they spoke with regret, and the call ended with words of encouragement, 'Let's meet later and talk.' After that, Lee Yi-kyung never mentioned Yu Jae-seok even once," and asked that "speculative reporting or rumor spreading that has not had its facts verified beyond the above content be refrained from."
[Photo] OSEN DB
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