A Second TWICE Member Just Left JYP. This Time It's Chaeyoung.
Chaeyoung posted a handwritten letter to Instagram Thursday confirming she has left JYP Entertainment after 14 years, becoming the second TWICE member to exit the agency in a single month. "I wanted to share this with ONCE first, my family who has always been by my side," she wrote, using the name of TWICE's fandom. "I'm so excited to step into a new chapter and bring my new LIL FANTASY, a world where I can explore and build my music."
The 27-year-old rapper thanked "everyone at JYP and Team TWICE for believing in and supporting me over the past 14 years," then addressed the question fans would ask first: "Most of all, please know that nothing changes with TWICE. Everything I've received is thanks to my time as TWICE, which will always be my roots." Chaeyoung didn't name a new agency, saying only that discussions were ongoing, and framed her departure as room to build out "LIL FANTASY" - the title of her September 2025 solo debut LP, which ranked No. 86 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of 2025 and No. 7 on both Billboard's and Forbes's year-end K-pop album lists.
The announcement comes three days after bandmate Jeongyeon became the first TWICE member to leave JYP, signing instead with Varo Entertainment, where her sister, actor Gong Seung-yeon, is also represented. JYP responded to that news by confirming only that "TWICE is currently in the process of negotiating their contract renewals" - language that now applies to two departures rather than one. South Korean outlets reported last month that leader Jihyo and member Tzuyu were also weighing separate agencies for solo work, with JYP saying those talks remain ongoing.
Every member has said the same thing in a different way: the group stays intact. TWICE wrapped its "This Is For" world tour on July 10 to 12 with three finale shows at KSPO Dome in Seoul, an 81-date run that made the group the first foreign act to headline Japan's National Stadium. Jihyo told Forbes in a recent interview that members would spend the rest of 2026 on rest and individual projects before regrouping. Two contract exits inside one month suggest that pause is turning into something more structural than a break.
Chaeyoung debuted with TWICE in October 2015 after joining JYP as a trainee in 2012, and was the first member to receive a songwriting credit, on 2016's "Precious Love." Whatever "LIL FANTASY" becomes next, and wherever she signs to build it, TWICE says it will still be a nine-member group when it returns.
