South Korean AI Billionaire Faces $1bn Divorce Settlement Over Extramarital Child

South Korean tech billionaire Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, faces a legal ruling on Friday, July 24, 2026, that could order him to pay nearly $1 billion to his ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong, following the dissolution of their marriage.

The retrial in the high-stakes property division suit comes nine months after the Supreme Court finalized the couple’s divorce last October, ending a marriage that began in 1988 and produced three children.

The legal battle escalated after Chey publicly disclosed in 2015 that he had fathered a child with another woman, Kim Hee-young, who is now his longtime partner.

Roh, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, initially resisted divorce before filing legal claims over marital infidelity and financial contributions to SK Group’s growth.

A previous 2024 court ruling ordered Chey to transfer 35 percent of his assets, then valued at nearly $1 billion, to Roh. However, the Supreme Court overturned that decision on appeal, citing improper calculations regarding financial contributions from Roh’s father toward the business empire.

With SK Group’s shares rising significantly over the past year, doubling Chey’s estimated fortune to roughly $5 billion, the court’s final ruling on the property division marks the conclusion of one of South Korea’s most expensive corporate divorce cases.