Comedian Lee Jang-sook (now Lee Ri-an) has expressed her frustration over fake news claiming she failed to pay back money borrowed from Kim Sook.
On the 18th, a video titled “Is it real that we’re meeting after 32 years..? KBS 12th Class Reunion” was uploaded to the YouTube channel ‘Kim Sook TV’.
Kim Sook reunited with her KBS 12th class peers Gong Ki-tak, Hong Seok-cheon, and Lee Jang-sook after 32 years. Hong Seok-cheon was shocked, asking, “Isn’t this the first time we’ve seen each other since ’95?” to which Lee Jang-sook replied, “That’s not true. You just don’t remember the times in between.” Hong Seok-cheon jokingly added, “I’m usually not great at remembering women.” When Kim Sook asked about her name, noting it changes often, Lee Jang-sook clarified, “My name is actually Lee Ri-an now. I legally changed it and I’m promoting myself as Lee Ri-an.”
Kim Sook then caught everyone’s attention by admitting, “I feel sorry toward Jang-sook unnie. She was misunderstood for no reason.”
Previously, on ‘Bibo TV’, Kim Sook mentioned she had lent 500,000 won to a friend struggling financially, but the friend bought a second-hand luxury bag instead of paying her back. This led to rumors that the friend in question was Lee Jang-sook.
Lee Jang-sook revealed, “After Sook told that story, articles came out, and people suddenly started cursing at me on my SNS and YouTube. They said things like ‘Pay back the money,’ ‘You’re the one who stole Kim Sook’s money,’ and ‘You bad person, you bought a second-hand luxury bag.’ When I looked into why, I found a fake news YouTuber had read the article and slapped my name and photo right on the screen. That video got over 2 million views.”
Lee Jang-sook shared, “At first, I didn’t tell Sook and just wrote comments myself. Since it wasn’t true, I asked them to take the video down, but they only deleted my comments. I felt it had gone too far, so I contacted Sook.”
Kim Sook added, “Unnie told me cautiously. I should have spoken up sooner.” She continued, “I even went into the Kim Sook TV account and commented, ‘I never said this, and someone else is being harmed, so please take the video down,’ but it was useless. So I posted a photo of us on SNS and clarified it wasn’t her. Even so, people who don’t want to believe it still don’t,” she said, shaking her head.
