Granddaughter of Korea Grandma YouTuber apologizes for fiancé again

Park Mak-rye, left, and her granddaughter Kim Yu-ra [INSTAGRAM]

Kim Yu-ra, who is the granddaughter of popular YouTuber Park Mak-rye, better known by her handle Korea Grandma, apologized for a second time regarding controversy surrounding her fiancé.

Kim's fiancé is the head of a clothing company. Past T-shirts and social media posts he made are the cause of the backlash. A 2015 collection titled “fuxxxxx summer” that he released in collaboration with another artist, features a T-shirt with a graphic illustration that netizens accuse of suggesting gang rape.

He has also posted photos of female models and K-pop idol singers in revealing clothing on his Instagram account.

“I’m sorry that my personal news has caused a commotion,” she said in a post uploaded on her YouTube channel Wednesday evening. “It took me a while [to come back] to thoroughly understand the situation and organize my thoughts so that there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings, but I write this now mustering up my courage because I believe that I need to explain myself directly to the waiting subscribers.

“[Several] postings and T-shirt illustrations sold by a person that I’m seeing became controversial, and I have disappointed so many people due to my usage of inadequate expressions during the process of resolving this issue,” she wrote. “I have done my best to be prudent with every aspect of work to not to disappoint the masses but I have realized that I still lack so much through this incident and am spending time to look back on myself.”

She apologized to her grandmother and the subscribers.

Park’s main fan base, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, expressed disappointment after the controversy surfaced. The backlash grew when Kim defended her fiancé’s past, saying “he is someone who shouldn’t be judged just by those images.”

The number of subscribers to the Korea Grandma channel dropped by 30,000 in the four days after the controversy first arose and 30,000 more have since unsubscribed.

Park, now 75 years old, rose to fame after she became a YouTuber at the age of 71 with the help of her granddaughter. Her YouTube channel Korea Grandma has been featured on the New York Times and other foreign media outlets. Kim is also well-loved by Park’s fans and has frequently appeared in her videos as she manages her grandmother’s channel.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]