Yoon Eun-hye’s agency J Army Entertainment has firmly shut down all rumors of the Coffee Prince actor having dated fitness YouTuber and variety show star Kim Jong-kook in the past.
The two starred on SBS' reality show X-Man, which aired between 2003 and 2007. On the show, the "love line" between Yoon Eun-hye and Kim Jong-kook was very popular, giving rise to rumors of a past affair.
Both Yoon Eun-hye and Kim Jong-kook have made mentions of "messages" that grow shorter in the last, giving rise to speculation
The speculation started afresh with the actor uploading a video to her YouTube channel, Yoon Eun Hye’s Eunhyelogin, on May 17. In the video, the actor opened up about her experiences with an ex-boyfriend.
She said,
"Most men send a lot of messages at the beginning of a relationship, but they start to message less as time passes. That’s why the women can’t help but be upset after becoming discontent. It’s better to not do something you can’t keep up later.”
She gave the example of her ex boyfriend, who reportedly acted in a similar manner.
“I wrote all the messages my boyfriend sent me each day by day in a small notebook and gave it to him so that he wouldn’t send long messages from the beginning. He is also a good person. He was apologetic after seeing how his messages became shorter.”
After watching the clip, many fans of Yoon Eun-hye and Kim Jong-kook's rumored relationship were quick to bring up a clip from another variety show, My Little Old Boy, that aired in February 2018.
On the show, Kim Jong-kook mentioned an ex-girlfriend after finding letters from her in his attic. He said,
“There was a time my girlfriend wrote by hand all the messages I sent her everyday and gave it to me. She used to call me ‘Prince.'”
What sealed the deal was that he mentioned his "messages" growing "increasingly shorter", much like Yoon Eun-hye's description.
“My messages grew increasingly shorter. Later, I only sent, ‘I’m going to gym.'”
The YouTube video in question was deleted not long after this controversy began. While many believed it was due to the rumors, Yoon Eun-hye herself clarified that it was not so:
“I inevitably deleted the video I recently uploaded because a problem occurred with the file after the upload.”
Soon, the actor's agency also published a statement announcing that the deletion had nothing to do with Kim Jong-kook.
“[Deleting the video] has no relation at all with Kim Jong Kook. In the case of the YouTube video, there were many problems, and since we have been uploading a video every week for over a year, we determined that we needed a period of rest, so we are in the process of rechecking [the video] and preparing for Season 2.”
The agency reiterated that the two do not have a romantic relationship, and they never did, but took care to remind everyone that the deletion had nothing to do with rumors.
“It has no relation at all with the issue at hand, and even before the video went up, there were problems with the upload date and internal circumstances as well. The video was uploaded in that state, but the video itself also had issues, so we took it down in advance. It was never because an article regarding a past relationship was published. It is just a coincidence.”
While the denial of the relationship rumors is convincing, many fans are still holding out hope for a reunion of Yoon Eun-hye and Kim Jong-kook.
Yoon Eun-hye was last seen on the JTBC variety show Cook King: Birth of the Cooking King, while the singer Kim Jong-kook regular features on SBS's Running Man.