Former T-ara member Areum hospitalised for attempted suicide

Areum, a former member of South Korean girl group T-ara, has reportedly been hospitalised after attempting suicide in the early morning of Wednesday (March 27).

Her representatives told South Korean media Osen that the 29-year-old former K-pop idol left a suicide note and had not regained consciousness after being taken to the hospital.

Her fiance, Seo Dong-hoon, shared on his Instagram Story: “Thank you to Areum’s fans and related parties for reaching out with your worry and encouragement.

“Please do not make any unnecessary or weird contact requests of me, please do it in moderation. A person is in pain and unconscious… I pray that Areum will be okay.”

The news came after Areum took to Instagram two days prior to share a lengthy five-page letter detailing alleged domestic abuse by her ex-husband, businessman Kim Young-gul.

Areum has two sons with Kim — the first was born in May 2020 and the second in December 2022 —  and is currently in divorce proceedings with him.

“One day in November 2021, [Kim] was unable to control his temper. [He] pinned me down to the bed in front of our child and ripped my clothes off, strangling and threatening to kill me,” Areum wrote in her March 25 post.

“Then he hit me so hard I had a bruise on my face next to my nose. And [he] hit the soles of my feet so hard with his fists I couldn’t walk for a while.”

Areum alleged that Kim got a phone call from his mother then and told her, “She’s acting crazy right now, making a fuss and being violent with me. She should be put in a mental hospital”.

When Areum started screaming for help, saying that Kim was the one beating her up, his mother allegedly hung up and Kim became even more violent with the singer.

“From then on, all I could think about was my child, so I tried to get [Kim] as calm as possible and was able to convince him to talk in the living room,” she wrote.

Adding that Kim would take her phone away and lock her in the bedroom whenever they had a fight — “either talking to me or assaulting me until he regained control” — Areum took her chance when he was in another room talking on the phone to grab their son and run out the door. She then took a taxi to her parents’ home.

“I didn’t even think about the fact that my clothes were ripped,” she wrote.

In the post, Areum also shared photos taken “from the day he mercilessly beat me in front of my child”, which show a small cut next to her nose and her torn clothes.

“I took these pictures as soon as I got to my parents’ house. You can see that my dress is all ripped up,” she wrote in the caption.

“I can’t show all of it to you, but I was seriously bruised all over my body. My nose was crooked from the beating and it was bruised for a long time.”

However, she added in the caption that she became “stupidly weak” when Kim begged her for forgiveness afterwards, and “didn’t even think to go to the hospital and leave records for evidence” beyond the photos she took.

“And that’s exactly why I can’t sue him for assaulting me. I regret it so much,” she wrote.

Areum added in her letter that she and Kim had tried to reconcile on the TV show Between Marriage and Divorce, and that she avoided revealing details about the physical abuse and “ugly facts”.

She wanted to set the record straight with her Instagram post.

Areum also accused Kim of neglecting their children — alleging that he was out “drinking at an adult establishment” while their older son was hospitalised with meningitis and Areum was pregnant with their second boy — and his mum of “gaslighting” her.

It was not the first time that Areum had publicly accused her ex-husband of domestic violence.

On March 2, Areum revealed in a separate Instagram post that her sons — whom Kim had temporary custody of — had told her about abuse at the hands of their father.

The older child alleged that he was hit and kicked out of their house after he “made a lot of noise” while Kim and his mother were sleeping.

The boy also alleged that his father spat on him and his brother, urinated on them and even smeared faeces on their faces.

Areum shared photos of bruises on one of her children’s bodies, and a broken toenail he had incurred.

In her latest post, Areum revealed that discovering her children had been abused drove her to attempt suicide once, and that she was helped by her current fiance, whom she met after her separation with Kim.

She added in the caption: “Anyway, thank you for reading my story, and I’m so sorry that I keep worrying my friends and fans.

“But I can’t live in despair like this anymore, which is why I’m posting everything. I will definitely overcome it and live on by protecting my children even more.”