A South Korean court on July 24 ordered SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his ex-wife Roh Soh-yeong 944 billion Korean won (around $643-645 million) as part of their divorce settlement, a sum that would make it the country’s most expensive divorce case if finalized [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Chey and Roh were married in 1988 and have three children together [1, 2, 6, 3]. Their marriage broke down after Chey publicly admitted in 2015 to fathering a child with another woman [1, 2, 6, 3, 4]. Chey officially filed for divorce in 2017 [7, 8].
The court’s latest ruling reflects a sharp increase in SK Group’s value, largely due to a boom in artificial intelligence benefiting SK Hynix, the group’s semiconductor subsidiary. SK Hynix recently raised $26.5 billion in a U.S. stock market listing and now holds a market value exceeding $1 trillion [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. This surge helped push Chey’s net worth to an estimated $5.3 to $5.6 billion in 2026, more than doubling over the prior year [2, 3, 9, 4, 5].
Previously, a 2024 court ruling ordered Chey to pay Roh 1.38 trillion won ($945 million), but South Korea’s Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2025 and ordered a retrial [1, 5, 7, 8]. Roh initially sought up to half of Chey’s assets but was awarded about 35% in 2024 before the ruling was overturned [7, 8, 10]. In 2022, she was awarded about $50 million, an amount she appealed as unjust in recognizing women’s contributions to the family [11, 12, 7].
A core dispute has been whether the settlement should use the higher current valuations of SK shares after the AI boom or older, lower valuations. Roh argues it should reflect today’s values, while Chey contends it should be based on pre-boost worth as she did not contribute to recent growth [11, 12, 7, 8, 10]. Some analysts estimate the payout could reach $1 billion if higher values apply, though Chey’s lawyers expect a lower final amount [11, 12, 7, 8, 10].
Chey’s legal team said they regret the public concern the divorce has caused and are reviewing whether to appeal the verdict. "Chairman Chey Tae-won is deeply sorry in that [the divorce] proceedings so far have caused concern to many people. We will share specific response to the verdict after we closely review the ruling," they said [1]. Chey himself has also expressed sorrow for the public impact and will decide on appealing after examining the full ruling [2].
Roh Seh-yeong is the daughter of former South Korean president Roh Tae-woo [1, 2, 6, 3, 7]. The case has drawn intense public and media attention domestically, often called the "divorce of the century" [1, 6, 11, 7].
The settlement amount has yet to be finalized and may be paid in cash or stock, according to available reports [9].
