Actress Ha Young Apologizes After Agency Confirms Great-Grandfather's Ties

South Korean actress Ahn Ha-young, known as Ha Young, faced public backlash and cancelled promotional events after remarks about her great-grandfather, identified as Ahn Sang-ho, linked him to colonial-era pro-Japanese organizations. The controversy erupted days before Liberation Day, disrupting her career as her Netflix series Our Sticky Love premiered.

Television Remarks Spark Lineage Controversy

The controversy began when Ha Young appeared on the KBS2 variety program Problem Child in House, where she discussed her family history. During the broadcast, she stated that her great-grandfather opened one of Seoul’s earliest Western-style medical clinics and treated Emperor Gojong. She also described her family as having produced doctors across four generations, including her great-grandfather, grandfather, parents, and older sister. Following the broadcast, attention turned to reports identifying her great-grandfather as Ahn Sang-ho, who served as a council member of the Daejeong Friendship Association, an organization established in Seoul in 1919 and described in historical records as pro-Japanese. Further historical checks showed his involvement with the Daejeong Friendship Association, a business organization founded in 1916 and led by Min Yeong-gi, a known pro-Japanese collaborator. The group also included figures linked to Japan’s colonial administration, among them Yi Wan-yong, one of the signatories of the 1905 Eulsa Treaty and the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty.

Agency Reversal and Public Apology

Ha Young’s agency, Bistus Entertainment, initially rejected claims on a Monday that Ahn Sang-ho had been a pro-Japanese collaborator, but reversed course the following day after further verification. On Wednesday, the actor apologized publicly, saying she had been unaware of her family’s past and regretted having spoken proudly about it. The agency stated that Ha Young was taking the matter seriously and added that she would reflect on the concerns raised by the controversy and approach her activities with greater caution and humility. The timing coincided with the period leading up to Liberation Day on August 15, commemorating the country’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.

Genealogy Website Traffic Surge

As interest in the ancestry controversy grew, a website that helps Koreans trace their family origins and learn about historical figures and genealogies experienced a significant boost in traffic. The site provides information on 287 types of family lineages in South Korea, including their origins and population sizes. As interest surged over several days, its server was overloaded for several hours one evening and continued to crash for several minutes at a time the following day as users searched for information regarding the family lineage.

New Claims Regarding Family Lineage

Family history came under renewed scrutiny as new claims circulated online regarding her great-grandmother. Posts appeared on Korean online communities claiming that Ha Young’s great-grandmother was the daughter of a Japanese military official connected to the Japanese Government-General of Korea. The claim cited a passage from Kim Yong Sook’s 1983 book A Study of Court Customs of the Joseon Dynasty. In the cited passage, the author discussed a payroll list of royal household employees that included Ahn Sang-ho and noted that the list dated from after Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910. The author further wrote that Ahn was a figure who drew public suspicion surrounding the sudden death of Emperor Gojong, adding that suspicion intensified because his wife was said to have been the daughter of a Japanese general serving at the Government-General at the time. The passage spread rapidly online, though the specific identity and position of the Japanese official referenced in the decades-old publication have not been independently established through the circulating material alone.

Impact on Promotional Campaigns and Expert Analysis

The fallout has already begun affecting Ha Young’s career. Press interviews featuring Ha Young and her Our Sticky Love co-star Jung Hae-in were cancelled, disrupting the drama’s promotional campaign, while her commercial prospects also came under pressure.

Experts weighed in on the broader societal reaction. Lee Sung-min, an associate professor in the Department of Media Arts and Sciences at Korea National Open University, noted that there were different degrees of collaboration with Japan during the colonial period. While some figures had limited choices under colonial rule, others actively cooperated, and Lee noted that Ahn’s great-grandfather appeared to fall closer to the latter category. Pop culture critic Jung Duk-hyun observed that public reaction often depends on how descendants approach such family histories.

“People would be more uncomfortable not with the fact itself, but with how the descendants conduct themselves. Even if someone is a descendant, if they have a negative view of their ancestor’s actions, they’re unlikely to go around highlighting or taking pride in that connection. They can instead take a more humble stance or show greater interest in and engagement with those historical issues. I don’t think the public would necessarily criticise them if they responded in those kinds of ways.”

Jung Duk-hyun, pop culture critic, via Malay Mail

The controversy emerged against a backdrop of shifting public sentiment. A July 2026 Hankook Research survey put Japan’s favourability rating at 44.8 out of 100 among South Koreans, marking its highest level since tracking began in 2018. Analysts suggest that while cultural exchange continues to grow, the public continues to maintain a distinct boundary between modern consumer preferences and historical grievances.