Cha Ye-ryun's agency denies school violence allegations as backlash spreads to family

School violence allegations against actress Cha Ye-ryun have spread beyond Cha herself, drawing in her husband, actor Joo Sang-wook, and the couple's family.

On Sunday, Joo's social media accounts were flooded with comments demanding a response to the allegations against Cha or outright criticizing the couple.

Online users wrote remarks such as "Looks like you married the wrong person — from debt fraud to school violence," "It seems like you were deceived into this marriage," "What would you do if your daughter got bullied?" and "Now I understand why your daughter is scared of her mom." Some online posts have gone so far as to mention the couple's young daughter.

The controversy began with an exposé posted on an online community forum in recent weeks.

The author claimed to have been repeatedly bullied and assaulted by an actress during middle school. Although no name was mentioned directly, clues including the actress's birth year and the school attended led online users to identify Cha as the person in question.

In response, Cha's agency, HB Entertainment, shrugged off the allegations, saying an internal review had found them groundless.

Despite the denial, additional claims continued to surface online from users identifying themselves as former classmates.

Some alleged that Cha had belonged to a so-called "iljin" — a clique of school bullies — during her school years, and called on Cha to apologize to the alleged victim.

Voices defending Cha also emerged. Another user who said they attended the same school said Cha "was not the kind of person who went around hitting or harassing anyone."

No objective evidence verifying the claims in the exposé has been made public as of Monday.

Cha married Joo in 2017 and gave birth to their daughter the following year.