Actor Lee Yi-kyung accuser says posts on lewd text exchange created by AI as a joke

A woman has confessed that she fabricated sexually explicit text messages purported to be from South Korean actor Lee Yi-kyung. 

Lee was caught up in a scandal earlier this week when what looked like screenshots of a lewd text conversation between him and undisclosed women circulated online on Oct 20. 

On Wednesday (Oct 22), the online user only known as A, who claims to be German, confessed that the images in her post were created using AI. 

South Korean media reported A as saying she was "truly sorry for spreading malicious rumours about actor Yi-kyung".

The woman said she had started writing the posts "as a joke" and did not expect them to gain attention. 

She further confessed: "It started with me simply admiring [Lee] as a fan, but over time I found myself getting emotionally involved.

“As I continued posting and using AI-generated images, I began to believe in the story myself. What started as admiration from a fan turned into emotional over-identification. I now feel guilty for crossing the line between fun and fiction.”

A added that “if there is any responsibility I must bear, I will take it. I’m German, so please forgive my clumsy Korean”. 

The woman had earlier refuted claims from Lee's agency, Sanyoung ENT, that she was lying. 

Following the initial posts on Monday, Lee's agency issued a statement declaring that it was preparing legal measures to counter “lies and malicious rumours that are spreading online”. 

“Uploading [and reposting] such content is also prone to legal action not just against the initial writer, so we ask people to take precautions against unnecessary damages. We will continue to protect our artists to our best efforts, based on the tips that we receive from the fans and our own monitoring efforts.”