Katseye fans had their eyes peeled on Thursday (April 2), and what they saw gave them a lot to process.
When the group dropped a teaser clip for their upcoming single “Pinky Up,” fans immediately noticed that Manon Bannerman was absent from the footage. The clip featured all five other members with no sign of the singer who has been on hiatus since February. To make matters worse, fans also spotted that Bannerman had quietly removed any mention of Katseye from her Instagram bio, replacing it with her personal nickname “mademoiselle manzanita.” For a fanbase already on edge about her future with the group, it was a lot to absorb at once.
Later that same day, Bannerman addressed fans directly via Weverse. “Thank you so much for all the love and support you’ve been sending my way. I’m really grateful for the patience and kindness everyone has shown during this time,” she wrote, as reported by Forbes. “HxG and I are having positive conversations and I feel supported. I’m happy and I’m healthy. I’ll share more soon. Thank you for always being there for me.”
The message offered some reassurance, even if it stopped short of a clear answer on her status. Some fans are still holding out hope she could appear in the full music video, while others are reading the Instagram bio change as a more permanent signal.
The situation traces back to February 20, when HYBE and Geffen Records jointly announced that Bannerman would be stepping back from group activities temporarily to focus on her health and wellbeing. The labels said they “fully support this decision” and that Katseye would continue scheduled activities in the meantime. Since then, the group has performed at festivals across South America, including Lollapalooza Argentina, Lollapalooza Chile, and Estéreo Picnic in Colombia, all without Bannerman.
None of the other five members, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, Yoonchae Jeung, and Sophia Laforteza, have publicly commented on Bannerman’s hiatus.
The timing of all this hits especially hard given what Bannerman has shared publicly about her experience in the group. In a February interview with The Cut, she spoke candidly about the unique pressure she faces as the only Black member of Katseye. “Being called lazy, especially as a Black girl, is not fair,” she said, referencing criticism that followed her since Dream Academy, where she missed rehearsals due to illness. “Now I feel like I always need to put in extra work to prove something, even though I really don’t.”
