NewJeans recently experienced a major setback after the court ruled in favour of their agency, ADOR, preventing the girl group from pursuing work outside the label. This decision came right before they were set to debut under the new name NJZ, at ComplexCon earlier this week. Although their performance went ahead as planned, the group announced a hiatus shortly after.
Following the pause on all NJZ activities, the members of NewJeans ！ Hanni, Haerin, Danielle, Minji, and Hyein ！ sat down for interviews with BBC, where they opened up about their struggles amid their ongoing legal battle with their record label.
During the conversation, Hanni became emotional as she shared the difficulty of being away from her family in Australia, emphasising how challenging it has been for her as an Australian living in Korea.
"I¨m not Korean, so I don¨t have any family here either... my parents and whole family are in Australia, so everyone is very much concerned," Hanni explained.
As she fought back tears, she expressed sadness over the situation, hinting that she might have made different decisions if she had known what the future would hold.
"When I heard this, I felt really sad because I think it¨s the same for all of us. If we knew we were going to go through this, maybe we would have chosen differently..." she said.
However, she quickly shifted her focus to a more positive perspective, acknowledging her sympathy for her parents while remaining hopeful that the group would overcome the difficulties in time.
"Living doesn¨t work that way, but I just feel really sorry for my parents that they have to see me going through this while they live in a different country. But it¨s okay; we will get through it, and I¨m just trusting time," she added.
While many fans expressed empathy for Hanni and her struggles, others slammed her for her emotional display, accusing her of being "fake." Some pointed out contradictions in her statements, particularly her remark about not wanting to cause trouble for other groups, especially when NewJeans has been publicly involved in a legal battle with ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM.
On the K-pop subreddit r/kpop_uncensored, fans voiced their frustration, calling out the group for seeming hypocritical.
One user wrote, "It's absolutely wild to me to see Hanni say that they've been hesitant to speak out because it involves another team as if MHJ/NJ haven't been campaigning against ILLIT's very existence since the beginning, both internally within the company and then to the whole world."
Another commenter expressed their anger, saying, "They are shameless. Especially the statement that they don't want to affect other groups. On a side note, did they really give up the Korean market? I looked up some comments on TheQoo and YouTube, and they are even more negative than after the injunction loss and Time interview."
A third user criticised their media presence, stating, "Aren't they on hiatus? What's this now? All they do is yap, yap, and yap some more. You hear nothing from Ador or Hybe unless asked, yet here they are, always in the media."
Others went further, accusing Hanni of using the emotional display to gain sympathy, with one commenter stating, "The fact that they said they are trying to 'protect' another group from being attacked... it¨s just so, so fake." Many questioned the authenticity of her tears and wondered if these interviews were a form of "reverse viral marketing". Some fans criticised the BBC for giving the group a platform, while others accused the group of failing to provide evidence of mistreatment.
Check out more comments in the Reddit thread below:
NewJeans went to BBC... Thoughts?
byu/TokioHighway inkpop_uncensored
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