In 2026, is K-pop still fighting romance?

For K-pop idols, a dating rumor has always been considered a scandal by default — one of the industry’s most distinctive and notorious taboos, with some relationship revelations even significantly altering artists’ careers.

Now, in 2026, with K-pop at a global height once unimaginable, openly discussing relationships remains unusual.

The latest star to put the issue front and center is Blackpink’s Lisa.

“In K-pop culture, we can’t date,” Lisa was quoted as saying in her upcoming documentary, “Always Lalisa,” according to a report from the Toronto Star.

“If you’re seeing someone and you get caught by paparazzi, your popularity drops,” she said. “When I was younger, I had a few relationships, but we had to hide when we’re dating. I didn’t want my dating to be the thing that hurts Blackpink’s popularity.”

While her comment may have been hyperbolic, there was a time when it wouldn’t have been; dating was quite literally contractually banned in the early days of K-pop.

Her bandmate, Rosé, has also spoken unusually openly about dating earlier this year. In her “Call Her Daddy” appearance in January, she said she was “looking for love,” and discussed her discomfort with relationship questions, fearing that her dating life could come to define her publicly.

“Just because I was from a K-pop group doesn’t mean I am a different type of human being,” she said.

Such comments remain rare, raising the question of whether K-pop’s globalization has made dating less taboo. The answer, however, may be hardly linear.

‘I’m 32 years old, okay?’ 

In 1999, first-gen girl group Baby V.O.X’s Kan Mi-youn became the target of intense abuse after rumors linked her to H.O.T’s Moon Hee-jun, despite both denying the relationship. Kan faced harassment ranging from eggs and squirt guns to reported threats involving razor blades.

“I’m against any public relationship,” Moon said on television in 2014. “I’ve never disclosed anything, but scandals followed me around for 18 years.”

Then, in 2001, Joon Park of first-generation boy band g.o.d nearly lost his place in the group after his relationship with actor Han Go-eun became public.

“I’m 32 years old, okay?” he famously told reporters at a press conference.

Major revelations make headlines

By the early 2010s, scrutiny of entertainment contracts and artists’ rights had intensified. Authorities stepped in to demand correction of unfair contract provisions, and a 2014 court ruling found that a company rule banning dating was invalid because it violated “good morals and other social order.”

Informal dating bans persisted, of course, as idols repeatedly testified, although some high-profile relationships increasingly became public around this time.

In 2014, Girls’ Generation members YoonA and Sooyoung confirmed relationships with Lee Seung-gi and Jung Kyung-ho, respectively. And that July, EXO’s Baekhyun apologized after his relationship with Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon made the news.

“I am sorry for fans who may be disappointed and hurt by me,” he wrote.

Much of the backlash centered on suspicions that the pair had hidden subtle signs of affection in Instagram posts, which some fans criticized as “deceiving fans.”

In 2018, HyunA and former Pentagon member Dawn took an unexpectedly honest route. Their agency initially denied reports they were dating, but HyunA revealed a day later that they had been together for two years. Dawn ultimately left Pentagon, and the two officially broke up in 2022.

In 2020, EXO’s Chen made a bombshell announcement of his marriage to a noncelebrity partner, prompting some fans to demand his departure from the group, citing a sense of betrayal.

Has anything changed?

Blackpink’s Jennie has been involved in multiple dating rumors throughout her career, including her relationship with EXO’s Kai back in 2019.

SM Entertainment confirmed the relationship, while YG Entertainment, which famously remains mum on their artists’ dating rumors, did not. Their breakup was confirmed by SM about a month later, yet YG remained silent.

She was later rumored to be dating BTS’s V in 2022, but neither her agency nor BTS’s HYBE confirmed or denied the speculation. Reports of their breakup likewise went unconfirmed.

Just like that, the two superstars’ reported relationship came and went without official confirmation or denial — but that hardly meant the backlash against idols dating had subsided enough to be left unaddressed.

In 2024, aespa’s Karina faced truck protests after her relationship with actor Lee Jae-wook became public and issued a handwritten apology.

“I know how disappointed and sad [our fans], who have supported me until now, must have felt [about the news],” she wrote in a letter posted in March 2024.

Now, more than two decades since Park said, “I’m 32,” recognition of entertainers’ rights has evolved, but dating still remains a contentious topic.

One reason may lie in how K-pop increasingly monetizes the personal connection between artists and fans, leading to fierce loyalty as well as parasocial expectations.

Sociology scholar Yeon Hye-won, co-author of “Queer Idology” (2021), wrote in a 2024 column that some online criticism of Karina suggested that “fans want to be rewarded with an idol’s love in proportion to the love they have given the idol.”

And that assumed exchange, she argued, has been reinforced by fan communication platforms such as Weverse and bubble.

“While an idol’s relationship may simply have caused the emotions fans directed toward the idol to collapse in the past, fans now easily describe an idol’s relationship as an infringement on rights they believe they are entitled to,” Yeon said, adding that idols should ultimately be understood not merely as commodities but as workers providing labor — and individual human beings.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [[email protected]]