In October 2021, rumors V was dating the daughter of the president of Paradise Group, a hotel and resort conglomerate, spread throughout Korean online communities after he was spotted at a gallery exhibit with her and her mother (who happens to be the chairwoman of Paradise Group's Paradise Culture Foundation). Hybe quickly shut down the rumors in a statement, saying, "Chairwoman Choi Yoon Jung's family and V are just acquaintances." Still, that didn't stop V from speaking out about dating rumors himself on Weverse. "Pathetic. I'd like to sing UGH," he wrote in an Oct. 14, 2021, post, according to a fan translation by Twitter user @Choi_BTS2. "In tonight's dream I'll shoot poisoned needle on their back necks. Please watch out your back neck."
In May 2022, rumors began to spread that V and Jennie from Blackpink were dating. The rumors were based on a photo that appeared to show V driving in a car with someone who looked like Jennie on Jeju Island. While some fans believed the photo was real, other fans questioned its authenticity since photo manipulations aren't uncommon when it comes to shipping idols (based on this list, it's safe to say dating rumors are more often fabricated than not when it comes to BTS). However, when reached out to for comment regarding the rumors, Jennie's label, YG, released a statement saying, "We have nothing to say [regarding this matter]. We will inform you if we have a different response to share," according to Chosun (via Soompi).
A few months later, in late August 2022, another photo of Jennie snapping a pic of V while he's getting his hair styled leaked. In the photo, V appears to be wearing the same outfit he wore to the airport to attend the Celine fashion show in Paris on June 23 (which he, coincidentally, attended with Jennie's bandmate Lisa), suggesting they may have hung out before his departure.
More photos of the pair would ultimately leak, and YG released a statement that seemed to suggest they were starting an investigation into who was leaking the photos. "We have officially requested the police to investigate who first circulated Blackpink Jennie's personal photos," YG said in an October 2022 statement (via Rolling Stone).
"We have refrained from mentioning the matter or making an official statement in order to minimize any further damage. However, there have been indiscriminate rumors, criticism, personal attacks, sexual harassment, and violations of personal life sparked by those private photographs," the statement continued. "We are now announcing that we will take legal action and correct the situation."
While some fans took this as confirmation that V and Jennie did date, others still doubted the authenticity of the photos or believed YG could have been referencing other breaches of privacy in their statement.
Rumors surrounding V and Jennie died down over the following months as the sieve of leaked photos dried up. But that all changed on May 17, 2023, when video footage that appeared to show the pair holding hands and taking a romantic stroll in Paris emerged on Twitter. While fans, once again, doubted the authenticity of the footage since the couple was filmed from a distance, close-up photos that followed soon after on Twitter showed the idols up close with their respective management teams wearing the same outfits as the couple in the video.
Both YG and HYBE declined to formally address the latest dating rumors directly according to Sports Seoul, instead telling the outlet, "We don't know because it is the private life of artists." Since HYBE has denied false dating rumors, the agencies' silence on the latest rumors is as good as confirmation V and Jennie are dating for many. (HYBE did not respond to POPSUGAR's request for comment on the V and Jennie dating rumors, and reps for Jennie could not be reached.)
Jennie and V have not been spotted together in recent months. They both attended Bruno Mars's concert in Seoul in June, but sat separately in different sections of the arena, which drummed up some buzz. V has been spotted interacting more freely in public with other members of Blackpink, which could suggest things are still going strong with Jennie. He regularly has schedules with Lisa through their respective partnerships with fashion brand Celine, and V more recently chatted with Jisoo at Frieze Seoul 2023 Paradise Art Festa on Sept. 4.
