The new Netflix series Beef was officially released the first week of this month.Following its release, Beef creator Lee Sung Jin (Dave, Undone) and fellow executive producers Ali Wong (Always Be My Maybe,  Ali Wong:Baby Cobra) and Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, NOPE) have finally responded to the brewing controversy surrounding co-star David Choe (The Choe Show, We Are the Strange) a week after Choe’s story about committing sexual assault resurfaced and went viral online, via The Hollywood Reporter.

Since the resurfacing of the controversial story, no response has been given from any parties involved copyright claims from Choe’s foundation requesting that clips of the podcast episode, in which the original story was shared, be removed from social media. The story has gained traction  with repeated calls for Lee, Wong and Yeun — as well as Netflix and production company A24 — to disclose whether they knew of Choe’s past comments and explain why he was brought onto the project. Choe is friends with both Wong and Yeun and was invited to take the part by Lee. But Lee, Wong and Yeun issued a statement Friday, first released to Vanity Fair. 

The statement was as follows, “The story David Choe fabricated nine years ago is undeniably hurtful and extremely disturbing. We do not condone this story in any way, and we understand why this has been so upsetting and triggering. We’re aware David has apologized in the past for making up this horrific story, and we’ve seen him put in the work to get the mental health support he needed over the next decade to better himself and learn from his mistakes.”

n 2014, Choe told a story on his DVDASA podcast–which has since been inactive– in which he described coercing a masseuse to perform oral sex on him. He alternately called himself a “successful rapist” and conceded his actions were “rapey behavior,” while denying that he was a rapist. The story briefly went viral at the time, and Choe, who was then mostly known as a successful street artist, allegedly claimed that he made up the tale “as a complete extension of my art.”