The recording came from one of Kim Sae Ron’s best friends.
Amid the spotlight shifting to Kim Sae Ron‘s marriage and divorce with “New York Man” (as the said ex-husband stepped forward to defend himself), one of the late actress’s best friends, Friend B, released a voice recording taken from his confrontation with YouTuber Lee Jin Ho to allege that actor Kim Soo Hyun—and how he treated Kim Sae Ron through their relationship in her teens—remains at the center of Kim Sae Ron’s death.
Friend B, who introduced himself as one of Kim Sae Ron’s best friends who stayed through the three days of the late actress’s funeral to help the bereaved send her off, owns a bar where Kim Sae Ron and their group of close friends used to frequent. When YouTuber Lee Jin Ho and digital forensics specialist Lee Yo Min visited the bar on March 25, 2025 (KST), Friend B sat down with them and confronted the YouTuber about how he harassed the late actress. It was during this confrontation the voice recording is said to have been taken inside Friend B’s hoodie pocket.
The voice recording revealed that Friend B knew about Kim Sae Ron’s relationship with Kim Soo Hyun as a minor.
Friend B: …Here’s what I think. I don’t know Kim Soo Hyun personally. So, I’m going to listen to what Sae Ron had to say and believe her. That’s what I’ve been doing so far. But it is true that she was a minor when the two of them dated.
Lee Jin Ho: Okay.
Friend B: You know this. But—
Lee Yo Min: Really?
Friend B: Yes.
Lee Yo Min: Not after she turned 19?
Friend B: No, it started before that.
Lee Yo Min: Really?
Friend B: Yes, really. And I know more about how Kim Soo Hyun apparently treated Kim Sae Ron.
He then claimed that the late actress struggled throughout the six-year relationship because Kim Soo Hyun cheated on her multiple times. According to Friend B, Kim Sae Ron stayed with Kim Soo Hyun despite it all because he promised to marry her in the end.
Friend B: Ah Im* held a lot of resentment toward Kim Soo Hyun. Think about it. He played her when she was a child. You know what Sae Ron always said? She said it was such a struggle keeping her place for six years. As the queen, per se… because he kept bringing in concubines.
*Kim Sae Ron had legally changed her name to Kim Ah Im.
Lee Jin Ho: Oh…
Friend B: But she put up with all of it because he promised to marry her.
As Friend B brought up Kim Soo Hyun cheating on Kim Sae Ron, Lee Yo Min—realizing that Friend B knew in depth about the relationship—seemingly admitted to Kim Soo Hyun dating other women. Lee Yo Min mentioned two other names, though redacted, and referred to them as the “concubines” Kim Soo Hyun kept.
Friend B: I mean, I know worse things. But I’m not going to talk about them because I can’t fact-check them. But I’m on Sae Ron’s side. I choose to listen to her side of the story and believe her.
Lee Yo Min: Well, then… I guess I can go ahead and talk about this. You know about the time when… You know, [Redacted name] or [redacted name]. The overlap between them… They were the ‘concubines.’
Friend B: That is correct.
Lee Yo Min: I only mention them because it seems you already know everything.
Even when Lee Jin Ho and Lee Yo Min tried to split the blame, Friend B reiterated that Kim Soo Hyun played the biggest part in what led to the late actress’s death. Friend B claimed that Kim Sae Ron knew a lot about Kim Soo Hyun, and so, for the actor, she must had been his Achilles’ heel.
“I do know that Sae Ron’s mom helped her with managing her finances. I don’t know what her dad does. But whenever I talked to Sae Ron, we would say that we should keep our eyes set on the future and push forward. I didn’t really try to talk to her about much else. I didn’t want to make her sad or cry. Coming to the bar and grabbing a glass of beer was one of her only ways to relieve stress…
…What I think? I think, if we could split the reason behind Sae Ron’s death out of 100, Kim Soo Hyun carries 70 of the burden. Lee Jin Ho, you are 25. The New York Man is only 5. She was full of resentment and had a lot of negative thoughts weighing her down…
…I can only imagine that Sae Ron must have been Kim Soo Hyun’s Achilles’ heel because she knew so much about him. So I assumed that’s why he’s trying to push her over the edge.”
— Friend B
Toward the end of the voice recording, Kim Se Ui (Kim Say) from the channel Garosero Research Institute can be heard barging into the bar, ending the confrontation. The voice recording was then revealed as part of Kim Se Ui’s latest update video on Kim Soo Hyun’s fallout.