In a shocking development, ADOR announced on December 29 that it had terminated the exclusive contract of now ex-NewJeans member Danielle Marsh.
In a separate statement, the HYBE subsidiary states that Danielle signed another contract, even after a court ruled that her deal with ADOR was valid until July 31, 2029. She’s also been accused of engaging in unauthorized entertainment activities, in addition to damaging NewJeans’ reputation and credibility.
ADOR didn’t stop there. The statement also said the company would pursue legal action against Danielle, but also a member of her family and former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. Both allegedly played major roles in prolonging the conflict between NewJeans and the label.
With Danielle gone, NewJeans’ future looks more uncertain than ever. Hanni, Haerin, and Hyein have confirmed they’ll continue with ADOR, while Minji is still discussing her return to the company.
How We Got Here
To understand the situation, let’s rewind to the start of the ADOR-HYBE conflict.
Back in 2024, HYBE accused then-ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin of trying to separate the label from HYBE and take NewJeans with her.
HYBE began an audit into Min, who shot back with claims that HYBE’s sub label, BELIFT LAB, had plagiarized NewJeans’ concept when creating their girl group, ILLIT. In retaliation, NewJeans threatened to leave ADOR unless Min was reinstated.
Regardless of your personal thoughts on the situation, at the end of the day…
The court ruled on October 30, 2025 that NewJeans’ contract with ADOR was valid until July 31, 2029.
Now that we got that out of the way, what is going on with Danielle?
Danielle’s Loyalty and the Allegations Against Her Family
Among all five members, Danielle was always the most openly loyal to Min Hee Jin. Her emotional letter to Min, who shared it on Instagram, showed how much Danielle adored her.
“My beloved CEO, it’s Dani,”
“It’s been two years already. Our CEO who really did the most, thank you so, so much. So much has happened during the short and long two years that it almost feels like we went through everything we should have in seven years. Maybe it was a sacrifice for the future.”
Danielle wrote about wanting to always stand by Min’s side and called her “family.” It’s easy to see why ADOR might view her bond with Min as a problem.
The kicker is ADOR’s claim that a member of Danielle’s family helped gaslight the group into believing the company mistreated them. This is the first time the label has linked a relative to the dispute. Though unconfirmed, industry insiders speculate ADOR’s statement was referring to Danielle’s mother.
It doesn’t help that this news is coming after ILLIT fans accused Danielle’s older sister Olivia of mocking the group in a TikTok challenge.
The OMEGA Sponsorship
So what did Danielle do to warrant such a response from ADOR? Some are wondering if her ambassadorship with luxury brand OMEGA got her in trouble.
The deal was announced in December 2024, about a month after NewJeans attempted to terminate their contracts. This was before the Seoul District Central Court granted ADOR’s request for an injunction that blocked the members from having independent entertainment and advertising activities. The injunction also imposed a penalty of 1 billion won (around $730,000 USD) per violation.
There’s still speculation over whether the OMEGA partnership had ADOR’s blessing. Photos of Danielle showing off the watches were posted on NewJeans’ official social media accounts. ADOR’s staff even accompanied Danielle to an OMEGA event in Kyoto, Japan on June 18, 2025.
However, OMEGA has always referred to the singer by her full name Danielle Marsh instead of NewJeans’ Danielle. This is important because in K-pop, idols are always referred to by their group name followed by their stage name. Each member acts as a representative of their group. Especially when members pursue solo careers while still promoting with their group.
OMEGA also followed jeanzforfree, the Instagram account NewJeans made to interact with their fans following their attempt to split from ADOR. (The account was terminated following the court’s ruling in October).
This implies that ADOR wasn’t initially involved in approving the deal.
Emotional Oranges’ IG Post
Then there was the Emotional Oranges incident.
In May 2025, the American R&B duo posted a photo of Danielle with the caption, “Just give us some time guys it’s coming,” which fans took as evidence of a collaboration.
They deleted it days later and apologized, clarifying they were referring to a song they produced for Danielle’s sister.
An industry source close to the situation told The Korea Herald, “The post did go up and was later deleted. It’s not fake news. However, this is not something agreed upon with ADOR, if that’s what it is.”
Whether these instances qualify as breach of contract is up for the court to decide. Yet these instances show a pattern of disobedience and reputational damage serious enough to justify termination.
Will Danielle Join The Black Label?
Fueling the fire are rumors that The Black Label, a YG Entertainment subsidiary, is planning to sign Danielle.
She’s been seen at charity events and marathons with artists tied to YG, like rapper Sean and singer/actor Yim Siwan. Sean in particular regularly posts pictures of himself with Danielle. This has caused some criticism since Sean is 53 years old while Danielle is only 20.
The Black Label hasn’t addressed the rumors and ADOR hasn’t named The Black Label in its accusations.
Realistically, it would be risky for The Black Label to sign Danielle now. Any deal could bring them into direct conflict with ADOR’s pending lawsuits. Not only that, but she’s in the middle of what’s looking like a larger conspiracy to push her former group into breaking from their agency.
The Black label would be asking to get sucked into a legal drama that would cause irreparable harm to their reputation.
This Isn’t a Win for Anyone
There’s a lot of speculation going around right now. We’re all just waiting for ADOR to give out more details but here’s my two cents
I’m not a HYBE bootlicker. I don’t trust HYBE or any of the executives running that company. At the same time, I don’t believe ADOR would spend a whole year fighting to get NewJeans back only to kick one of the members out of the group. If that was the case ADOR would have terminated NewJeans’ contract a long time ago.
Getting rid of Danielleis not a win for ADOR and HYBE. There’s nothing to gain because it’s in their best interest to have all five members return. Giving a member the boot along with accusing their family of tampering is a bad look that causes drama and divides the fandom.
Terminating a contract isn’t a power move because it’s an admission that something has broken beyond repair. Whatever is going on with Danielle is bad enough that ADOR realized that it would be impossible to work with her.
It’s looking like they’re doing the best they can in what is an absolutely shitty situation that they shouldn’t even be dealing with.
