Singer Jhun In-kwon said in a recent interview that he had a previously unpublicized romantic relationship with the late actress Lee Eun-joo, who committed suicide in February at the age of 24.
"I loved Eun-joo and she loved me," Jhun, the 50-year-old former lead singer of the rock group Dulgookhwa, told the Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday. He said they were romantically involved for four years, up until the actress committed suicide.
Though it was well known that Jhun and Lee were good friends, no romantic link was previously mentioned.
Jhun also showed the Yonhap reporter a text message he had received from Lee two days before she died.
It read, "There was a misunderstanding. I'm sorry."
"I still have many messages that Eun-joo sent me. Would people who are just friends contact each other this often?" he said.
However, immediately after the interview was made public, Lee's friends and family denied Jhun's claims.
Film producer and close friend identified only by her surname Ha told Yonhap that Jhun's obsession with her friend was extreme and called Jhun a stalker. Ha was Lee's roommate since November 2004.
"He would text message her 20 times a day. He also called her late in the night and when she didn't answer his calls he would record messages in a state of rage," she said.
Ha said that the message that Jhun made public was a reply to an angry message he had sent when Lee was not feeling well and reluctant to meet people.
Jhun, who has a history of substance abuse, is said to have put meat and instant noodles by her grave recently saying that Lee had liked them. However, Ha says that Lee was a vegetarian and did not eat instant noodles.
Ha also said that Lee was seeing someone before she died, but would not specify who it was.
Lee, star of numerous popular television dramas and films, committed suicide at her Pundang, Kyonggi Province apartment on Feb. 22. Prior to her death the 25-year-old actress had received treatment for depression.
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