A once-celebrated K-pop star is now making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Lee Areum, a former member of the hit girl group T-ara, has been sentenced to prison after being found guilty of child abuse — just months after publicly accusing her ex-husband of the same crime.
Areum rose to fame 13 years ago as part of one of Korea’s biggest pop acts. But her downfall has been both dramatic and messy. Last year, she took to social media to accuse her ex-husband, Kim Young-gul, of child abuse and domestic violence. The couple, who married in 2019, share two children and finalized their divorce in 2023.
Police investigated her claims but reportedly found no evidence to support them. Instead, investigators uncovered that one of the children had allegedly been coerced into making statements against their father.
In January, the situation flipped. Young-gul filed a child abuse lawsuit against Areum and her mother, accusing her of verbally abusing him in front of their kids. He also sued her for defamation, claiming she exposed court documents during a livestream.
Earlier this month, the court ruled against Areum. She was sentenced to eight months in prison, with a two-year suspension, and ordered to complete 40 hours of child abuse prevention education. Her mother received a four-month sentence for neglect, after allegedly allowing the children to live in the same home where the abuse occurred.
The Suwon District Court denied Areum’s appeal last month, leaving the sentence in place.
The controversy doesn’t end there. Earlier this year, Areum and her boyfriend Seo Dong Hoon were also convicted of fraud for borrowing around $27,000 from fans and friends and never paying it back. She received an additional four-month prison sentence with a one-year suspension, while her boyfriend was sentenced to 14 months in prison.