T-ara's 2012 scandal haunts Jiyeon after breakup with Lee Dong Gun; solo album on hold

Jiyeon was putting her heart and soul into solo album that was supposed to be out in March or April.

  • Updated
T-ara Jiyeon
T-ara Jiyeon YouTube

Year 2017 doesn't seem to have offered a good start for T-ara's Jiyeon. The pretty lass began the year with a separation news. After almost a year and a half of dating, she parted ways with actor Lee Dong Gun citing incompatibility as the reason. The two stars first met on the sets of their Korean-Chinese collaborative movie, "Encounter" back in June 2015. Love sparked immediately and they confirmed their relationship in July of the same year.

Though the young singer assured fans that she is doing well after her breakup on a live broadcast session through Instagram, things seem to be on the bad side for her. Being the youngest member of the group, Jiyeon was putting her heart and soul into the solo album that was supposed to be out in March or April. However, now it looks like the album has been put on hold.

A report on Soompi claims that the hold is due to T-ara's Ryu Hwayoung and Ryu Hyoyoung recollection of the 2012 scandal, which has put T-ara in the spotlight once again for all the wrong reasons. The entire controversy began after one of its members Hwayoung and her sister, Hyoyoung, tweeted about a "bad person," that gave the impression that the girls are been bullied by other members. Soon the issue was blown out and their agency Core Contents Media abruptly terminated Hwayoung's contract. The girl group maintained that the bullying issue was made-up by netizens.

Now, the issue has been rekindled and it looks like the timing of the incident has put the preparations on the back burner. Soompi opined that Jiyeon doesn't want to use the scandal to gain publicity for the album and also she wants to be rated on the basis of her music.

Jiyeon, 23, is a member of girl group T-ara and has acted in a number of dramas including "Dream High 2," "Master of Study," and "Triangle." Back in 2014, she made her first solo mini-album called Never Ever, with 1 MIN 1 SEC title track. It reached the third spot in Gaon's album chart and featured her sexiness.

This article was first published on February 14, 2017