{"id":163251,"date":"2026-04-03T08:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/?p=163251"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:12:18","slug":"mark-lee-ends-his-nct-career-and-leaves-sm-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/mark-lee-ends-his-nct-career-and-leaves-sm-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Lee ends his NCT career and leaves SM Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>SM Entertainment confirms Mark Lee\u2019s departure<\/h2>\n<p><strong>SM Entertainment<\/strong> announced on April 3, 2026, that Mark Lee will leave both <strong>NCT<\/strong> and the agency after a long discussion about his future. In a statement shared with the public, the company said both sides agreed to end his exclusive contract on April 8, 2026, ten years after his debut as a part of the NCT universe. The news came as a surprise to many fans because Mark has been one of the most visible and active members of the NCT mega-group. In its statement, SM Entertainment thanked the 26-year-old for his work and support over the years, and asked fans to continue cheering for him in his next chapter.<\/p>\n<p>Read the company&#8217;s statement here:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-163253\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NCT-Mark-leaves-SM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NCT-Mark-leaves-SM.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NCT-Mark-leaves-SM-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NCT-Mark-leaves-SM-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NCT-Mark-leaves-SM-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NCT-Mark-leaves-SM-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/NCT-Mark-leaves-SM-860x484.jpg 860w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Mark Lee has built a major career over 10 years<\/h2>\n<p>Mark was born in <strong>Toronto, Canada,<\/strong> and moved to <strong>Seoul<\/strong> in 2012 to train under SM Entertainment. He made his official debut on April 9, 2016, as a member of <strong>NCT U<\/strong>. Later that same year, he also joined <strong>NCT 127<\/strong> and <strong>NCT Dream<\/strong>, becoming an important member for both groups. Following his debut, he was also introduced as part of SuperM, which launched in 2019 but is inactive as of now. Mark also released solo music under SM, with one of his biggest moments coming in April 2025 thanks to his debut album, The Firstfruit. His departure now closes an important 10-year period with the company, following extensive work as a member of various groups and as a soloist.<\/p>\n<p><iframe hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/intl-es\/album\/6c3cEkKxXpqpo8vNRWrv8s?si=MwliX7j7Scea1CJ1DtJ2lQ\" title=\"Spotify Embed: The Firstfruit - The 1st Album\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6c3cEkKxXpqpo8vNRWrv8s?si=MwliX7j7Scea1CJ1DtJ2lQ&amp;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>NCT members react to the sudden news<\/h2>\n<p>Several NCT members, including\u00a0 Chenle, Jaemin, Jeno, and Haechan, supported Mark on his decisions. Jeno commented on his Instagram account,\u00a0 \u201cOur leader hyung!! Let&#8217;s be happy.\u201d Haechan spelled \u201cI love you\u201d in hangeul. Meanwhile, Doyoung took to social media to share a message for Mark and the fans, saying:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n        <blockquote><p>\u201cFinally, there is one thing I want to state. If speculation arises about the relationship between Mark and the members, I&#8217;d feel an unbearable sense of sadness and injustice, so please allow us to cherish and protect the beautiful relationship we have shared with our fans for over 10 years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n        <\/figure>\n        \n<p>Read some of the translated messages posted on Weverse, Bubble, and Instagram below, translated from Korean to English:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-163252\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-leaves-NCT-reactions.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-leaves-NCT-reactions.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-leaves-NCT-reactions-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-leaves-NCT-reactions-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-leaves-NCT-reactions-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-leaves-NCT-reactions-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-leaves-NCT-reactions-860x484.jpg 860w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>What is next for NCT 127 and NCT DREAM?<\/h2>\n<p>SM Entertainment also confirmed that Mark will stop all activities connected to NCT, including work with NCT 127 and NCT Dream. After his exit, NCT 127 will continue with seven members: Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, and Haechan. Meanwhile, NCT Dream will continue with six: Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung. The announcement came only days after NCT Dream concluded their The Dream Show 4: Dream the Future tour in Seoul on March 29, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SM Entertainment confirms Mark Lee\u2019s departure SM Entertainment announced on April 3, 2026, that Mark Lee will leave both NCT and the agency after a long discussion about his future. In a statement shared with the public, the company said both sides agreed to end his exclusive contract on April 8, 2026, ten years after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3104,"featured_media":163254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2264,16,7],"tags":[938],"class_list":{"0":"post-163251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-kpop","9":"category-news","10":"tag-nct"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163256,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163251\/revisions\/163256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}