Trainee Reveals How Rich Korean Women Trick Male Idols Into “Sponsorships”
A Korean documentary program revealed the shocking truth about male celebrity sponsorships.
While many already knew about female celebrity sponsors, not many people ever thought male celebrities faced these problems too.
“As for me, an agency staff called me and said, ‘It’s tough being a trainee, right? Come out for a minute. Let’s go out and eat.
While we’re eating, a new person will join us at the table.”
— Anonymous male trainee
The documentary interviewed an anonymous male idol trainee who revealed the details of his encounter with a rich woman sponsor.
“Rich married women (usually sponsor us). They enjoy going to host bars.”
— Anonymous male trainee
When they first met, the rich Korean woman sponsor showered the idol with gifts and also gave him an allowance.
“At first, she gave me an allowance. She gave me maybe 80,000 KRW ($71 USD), 100,000 KRW ($89), 200,000 KRW ($177), and so on.”
— Anonymous trainee
Since he had no other means of an income, he was tempted to accept the allowance since she was gladly offering.
Once the woman almost completely earned his trust, she then offered to gift him a relatively large sum of money.
“Then she said ‘I’ve contemplated about this a lot, but I’ll send you some money’ and sent me 1 million KRW ($886 USD).
At first, I was shocked. I kept asking, ‘Am I allowed to take it? What should I do? Am I really allowed to accept it?’
But then she’d assure me and say, ‘Just take it since I’m offering it. It’s okay. You have a lot to spend it on.”
— Anonymous trainee
Around 4 months later, the woman messaged the trainee to come over to her house because she was lonely.
“After 4 months, she sent me a message that read ‘I’m lonely these days. Can you come over?’
I responded, ‘But you have a husband’, but then she said that her husband’s on a work trip and that he won’t be coming home today.
They usually want skinship, or they ask for us to stay a night.”
— Anonymous trainee
This made him feel uncomfortable, so he politely declined and promised to pay the woman back, but her attitude towards him completely changed after that.
“I told her, ‘I don’t think this is right. I know I accepted money from you but this is wrong. I’m going to succeed and pay all of it back to you in the future, so please stop contacting me from now on.’
Then she printed out all the receipts of our encounters and said, ‘I did this much for you and now you’re betraying me?’
I think it’s crazy too. But at the time, you don’t know that.”
— Anonymous trainee
In the end, the trainee revealed that it was a vicious cycle, as they have no choice but to dive deeper into sponsorship debt.
“People around us will tell us, ‘Just accept it, they’re sponsoring you so just take it.’ In the end, I realized that I accepted up to 2 to 3 million KRW ($1,771 to $2,657 USD).
I have to work but I had no money. There weren’t any positions available to me, but I had so much debt from the sponsors that I had to pay back.”
— Anonymous trainee
Source: eui seok lee
