Actress and model Song Yoon Ah, who once won a Baeksang Award for being the most popular female in television has seen the negative side of living in the spotlight. For several years now she has been the target of a vicious slander campaign.
The negative attention she received from netizens has finally prompted her to take legal action and defend herself.
This week the star, whose last drama role was a cameo in "Secret Garden," filed a defamation suit against those who spread false rumors about her marriage.
The false rumors began to circulate online when she married actor Sol Kyung Gu in 2009.
According to her lawyer, Im Sang Hyuk, when the couple married she became the target of cruel remarks that were based on false information.
The remarks had to do with the fact that her husband, who is best known for his roles in the films "Public Enemy," "Cold Eyes," "the Tower," and "Haeundae," had been married before. He divorced his first wife in 2006. A year later he began dating Song.
Song Yoon Ah and Sol Kyung Gu originally met when they worked together on the films "Jail Breakers" in 2002. They worked together again in the 2006 film "Lost in Love."
Some netizens falsely assumed and then spread the rumor that the two actors began dating while he was still married to his first wife. They claimed that it was an affair with Song Yoon Ah caused the divorce. Both actors insist that it is not true and that they were merely friends until almost a year after the divorce.
Still, the rumors would not die down. After seven years of being the subject of false rumors, Song Yoon Ah decided to file the defamation suit at the Gangnam Police Department against several netizens. The suit targets those who have been most active in spreading the rumors.
Online slander may be the biggest issue in the k-celebrity world this year with many celebrities filing similar suits because they are fed up with false and damaging comments being posted online.
While it is okay to comment on celebrities' personal lives online, it is not okay to malign them. Song Yoon Ah's lawyer stressed the fact that spreading false or career-damaging rumors is illegal.
"We hope that people understand just how serious the situation is," said Im Sang Hyuk.
Song Yoon Ah and Sol Kyung Gu have a four-year-old son.
