The ugly public spat between former South Korean celebrity couple Ku Hye-sun and Ahn Jae-hyun ended quietly unlike how it started.

After months of mud-slinging, sniping, and accusations from both sides, the former lovers went through mediation and finalised their divorce in July 2020.

Both parties have since moved on and Hye-sun, 36, even confessed to seeing someone new early this year. That must have been the end of it, right?

Not quite, as a recently leaked document is seemingly shedding more light on their messy divorce and perhaps strengthening Hye-sun's claims that Jae-hyun, 33, had cheated on her.

The document in question is one by Hye-sun's actress friend claiming that Jae-hyun had behaved intimately with a co-star from their TV series The Beauty Inside.

One such incident allegedly took place on Dec 28, 2018, when a group of six cast members (including Jae-hyun and the witness) went out for dinner with some of the crew from the show.

The witness claimed that Jae-hyun was intimate with a female co-star, had physical interactions, and behaved like a couple. Subsequently, both of them moved to an empty booth in the restaurant.

The witness also said that Jae-hyun was aware of her friendship with Hye-sun but yet, he didn't refrain from having physical contact with the co-star.

Another incident allegedly took place in Nov 21, 2018, when Jae-hyun and the female co-star were spotted heading towards a building in the wee hours of the morning after a gathering with the entire cast and crew of The Beauty Inside.

The document was dated April 8, 2020, and the identity of the witness was not revealed. This document was first shared on a YouTube video by Korean entertainment reporter Lee Jin-ho, who cast doubt on the veracity of the claims. He said that the actress who supposedly signed the document didn't actually create a written statement.

It is unclear how this copy came to be in his possession.

In response, Hye-sun said through her lawyer that she has the original copy of the document and the contents are exactly the same. She explained that her friend offered to be her witness but during the divorce proceedings, the latter never got a chance to take the stand.

Hence, the document was never submitted and the couple decided to settle their divorce privately.

It was also reported that Hye-sun intends to sue Jin-ho for defamation as he claimed that the contents of the document were false.

As for Jin-ho, he told Korean media that he only heard about Hye-sun pursuing legal action against him when he read the media reports.

He said: "I confirmed with actress B (the witness) but Ku Hye-sun is denying everything so what I can I say? Because of the given situation, there's nothing I can tell you. I just plan to take action after calmly observing the situation."

Jin-ho added that other YouTubers have revealed who the witness is but Hye-sun didn't sue them. He also pointed out that there were others who also brought up similar suspicions regarding the adultery claim.

Hye-sun eventually went on Instagram a few days ago to share a lengthy post regarding the issue. She confessed that she was acting emotionally when confronted with feelings of betrayal and she called for people to forgive Jae-hyun.

She wrote: "Looking back on it now, my actions, which were purely based on emotions from that time, are more shameful than the event in itself. Because of this, I did not wish to bring these events to the surface again and chose not to mention it anymore.

"However, the reason that I am writing once again now is that I have friends, and as a friend I do not want my friends to get hurt... I do not want my friend (the witness) to face damages from this. I am very thankful towards that friend.

"I have already forgiven everything. I am now positively believing that all of the things I went through thus far were events meant to help me grow as a person. By all means, please encourage that person who lived with me in his new beginnings.

"The past is the past, and even though I was not able to, I sincerely hope that you all will embrace him, even his wrongdoings." 

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bryanlim@asiaone.com

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