Chey Tae-won and Roh So-young's 'marriage of the century' nears its final chapter

The union once hailed as a "marriage of the century" — the 1988 wedding of a sitting president's daughter and the heir to one of South Korea's most powerful chaebol families — is now on the verge of a final legal close. After more than two decades of effective separation and nearly 10 years of courtroom battles, the divorce case between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Roh So-young is entering its final stage.

Seoul High Court's Family Division 1, presided over by Judge Lee Sang-ju, on July 24 ordered Chey to pay Roh 944 billion won ($663 million) in cash as a property settlement in the retrial on remand. Both sides must decide by Aug. 15 whether to appeal to the Supreme Court. If neither does, the 21-year legal saga will be fully resolved.

The marriage that began in 1988 started showing cracks in the late 1990s. Court documents indicate the relationship deteriorated beyond repair through a series of blows: the death of Chey's mother Park Gye-hee in 1997, the passing of his father and SK Group's founding chairman the following year, the transfer of group leadership, and the 2003 SK Global accounting fraud scandal. Chey's side has maintained that the couple effectively began sleeping in separate rooms around 2005, keeping up only the outward appearance of a marriage. Chey reportedly drafted divorce papers as early as 2013, citing irreconcilable differences in values. Roh, for her part, has argued that she stood by the family for more than 30 years, raising three children, and that the marriage broke down not because of differing values but because of Chey's extramarital relationship.

A 2011 prosecution investigation into SK Group drove the couple further apart. Chey's side suspected Roh had used connections at Cheong Wa Dae to influence the investigation, a claim she consistently denied, countering that she had supported her husband through his imprisonment and kept the family together. Chey informed his family of his decision to divorce in August 2011, moved out of the family home the following month and began living alone at his office in SK Serin Building.

The conflict spilled beyond the courtroom. When discussions arose in August 2015 about a Liberation Day special pardon for Chey, Roh sent a seven-page letter to Cheong Wa Dae listing nine reasons to oppose it. When the letter surfaced during the 2017 state corruption trial, Roh described it as a petition for his release — but subsequent reporting revealed it had in fact argued against the pardon.

After his release from prison in late December 2015, Chey sent a handwritten letter publicly acknowledging the existence of a child from an extramarital relationship and declaring his intention to divorce. Roh refused, saying she would preserve the family. A founding chairman of "Mirae-hoe," a group Roh established, was later handed a final Supreme Court sentence of eight months in prison, suspended for two years, with 160 hours of community service, on charges of spreading false information to defame Chey.

Chey filed for divorce mediation in 2017, and the case escalated into full litigation the following year. Roh, who had initially refused a divorce, reversed course in December 2019 and filed a counterclaim seeking a separation on the condition of a property settlement and alimony — amounting to roughly half of Chey's stake in SK Inc. The court-ordered settlement figure swung dramatically depending on how each bench assessed the case.

In December 2022, the first-instance court ruled that Chey's SK Inc. shares were personal assets acquired through inheritance and gifts, excluded them from the divisible property and awarded Roh only 66.5 billion won. On appeal, Roh's side argued that her father, former President Roh Tae-woo, had transferred 30 billion won to SK Group's late founding chairman Chey Jong-hyun around 1991, and asked the court to count that as a contribution to the couple's asset formation. The appeals court accepted the argument in May 2024 and issued an unprecedented order of 1.38 trillion won. Chey held a press conference to declare that the ruling contained serious errors and that he would appeal.

The tide turned at the Supreme Court last October. The court found that the 30 billion won appeared to be funds of a corrupt nature that Roh Tae-woo had accumulated while in office, and ruled that even if the money had flowed into SK, it could not be counted as a contribution to the couple's shared assets. The case was sent back to the appellate court. The divorce itself and the alimony were settled at that stage: the Supreme Court finalized a 2 billion won alimony award, legally ending the marriage at that point.

The central feature of last month's Seoul High Court ruling on remand is a "retain the shares, settle in cash" formula. The court included Chey's SK Inc. stake in the divisible assets and split ownership two-thirds to Chey and one-third to Roh. Rather than dividing the shares themselves, it ordered Chey to pay Roh her one-third share in cash — 944 billion won. An annual delay penalty of 5 percent will accrue from the day after the ruling is finalized.

Immediately after the ruling, Chey's legal representative expressed regret for the concern caused to many people throughout the more than 20-year process and said the team would review the written judgment before deciding whether to appeal. Roh's side made no separate statement. The couple's legal marriage was already dissolved by last year's Supreme Court ruling; what remains to be seen is whether this latest decision will bring the outstanding property dispute to a close as well. "This case makes you wonder what it means for the law to keep holding together two people who have long been strangers to each other," one business community figure said.