Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Slow-aging guru’s wellness brand unravels amid authorship issues, sexual abuse dispute
Jung Hee-won, Seoul’s former chief health officer / Korea Times file
By Lee Hae-rin
Star-backed wellness trend loses public, industry support amid legal scandal
Once hailed as the doctor who taught Koreans how to grow old slowly, Jung Hee-won is watching his "slow aging" brand fall apart. Allegations of stalking, sexual coercion and claims that he took credit for a former employee’s work have triggered corporate boycotts, the loss of prestigious public roles and a broader reckoning over power, gender and credibility in Korea’s latest wellness industry.
From slow-aging guru to policy insider
Jung, 41, rose to fame as a geriatrician at Seoul Asan Medical Center, turning complex data on frailty and chronic disease into a simple promise: slow aging.
A graduate of Seoul National University College of Medicine, he built his authority treating and studying older patients as Korea grappled with rapid population aging and a growing national focus on healthy longevity.
He packaged this philosophy as "slow aging," framing it as the opposite of "accelerated aging," and turned it into social media content and bestselling books offering practical routines on diet, exercise and daily routines for people in their 30s to 50s.
Television and radio amplified his reach. Jung appeared on hit talk shows and educational programs on major networks, and hosting his own YouTube channel, lectures and counseling podcasts that nurtured a loyal online fan base. In July, he began hosting an MBC radio program during commuting hours, further cementing his image as an articulate, trustworthy doctor who could discuss aging and wellness in a casual, approachable way.
Jung left Asan Medical Center in June and, positioning himself as a “social experimenter,” launched the Slow Aging Research Institute to oversee research, content and commercial projects. By August, he stepped directly into public policy as Seoul’s first chief health officer, a newly created grade-3 director-level post responsible for integrating healthy aging advice into citywide governance.
Jung Hee-won, center, talks with youth participants and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, left, during the city's health policy event at the Seoul City Hall, July 29. Newsis
Legal battle over authorship, abuse of power claims
The fall began when Jung went to the police in October to file a complaint against a woman in her 30s, identified only as A, a commissioned researcher who had worked for him. He accused her of violating the anti-stalking law, attempted extortion and trespassing.
Jung acknowledged a period of "temporary personal closeness" with A between March 2024 and June 2025, saying she showed affection, initiated physical contact and once booked accommodation under the pretext of giving him a massage, but he denies any sexual relationship or affair.
His legal team frames the case as stalking and attempted blackmail, claiming A began stalking him after their professional relationship ended, visiting his home, leaving letters and objects at his door and appearing at his wife’s workplace, while demanding money and claiming credit for the slow aging concept and content.
A presents a starkly different narrative. Through her lawyer, she has countersued Jung for sexual harassment, false accusation, defamation and sexual violence in a power-imbalanced relationship. She alleges that she was not a peer colleague but a contract researcher whose employment and future depended on Jung, who reportedly demanded she perform tasks aligned with his sexual preferences and used implied threats to undermine her ability to refuse.
Beyond the sexual abuse allegations, A says she planned, operated and grew Jung’s much-praised social media presence and slow-aging community, and drafted major portions of columns and books that appeared solely under his name.
A poster of Jung Hee-won and CJ CheilJedang's line of microwavable rice, which follows the recipes recommended by Jung, including four-to-two ratios of lentils, oats, brown rice and white rice. Courtesy of CJ CheilJedang
Corporate exits and public collapse
After the allegations surfaced in mid-December, big food companies that had built product lines around Jung’s image moved swiftly to distance themselves.
CJ CheilJedang removed his name and photo from instant rice products and scrubbed related promotions from its website, while Maeil Dairies and convenience store chain 7-Eleven likewise erased his presence from marketing for soy milk and ready-to-eat meals co-branded with his slow-aging diet.
MBC abruptly canceled Jung’s radio show, citing "personal reasons," and removed related content from its social media channels and YouTube. A local cultural foundation quietly announced his withdrawal from a scheduled horn performance, which he had promoted as the fruit of a 20-year hobby. Jung also resigned as Seoul’s chief health officer.
Text messages reportedly sent by Jung to A in October, pleading "Please save me" and expressing regret over filing the stalking report, have further fueled accusations of mixed messages and back-channel pressure.
While the slow-aging concept still resonates in Korea’s rapidly aging society, online reactions mix dark humor, disillusionment and weariness at yet another fallen guru.
"The Jung Hee-won that I liked wasn’t Yoon Suk Yeol, it was actually Kim Keon Hee — what kind of zeitgeist is this," one X post read, suggesting a sense of having been misled by a carefully curated persona.
Many emphasized that the shock lies less in the alleged acts themselves than in the gap between Jung’s public image and the messy, emotional conflict now exposed. "Is this really the person we thought we knew?" one post read, while another added, "What remains uncertain is whether it can be separated from the man who popularized it. Every time I follow a health-conscious diet, it reminds me of Jung and his adultery scandal."