The legal dispute over the destruction of common-law marriage, which lasted about two years between the son and former daughter-in-law of Hong Seo-beom and Cho Gap-kyung, was finalized at the Supreme Court.
According to the legal community on the 13th, the Supreme Court’s Special Division 1 (C) decided to reject the hearing on the 10th in a lawsuit filed by his former daughter-in-law A against B, the son of Hong Seo-beom and Cho Gap-kyung.
As a result, the appeals court ruling, which concluded that A’s partial victory, was confirmed as it was.
While maintaining a common-law relationship in 2024, A claimed damages, saying that the relationship broke down when B left home after having an affair.
The first trial judged that B was mainly responsible for the breakdown of the factual marriage, so he decided to pay 30 million won in alimony and pay 800,000 won per month for child-rearing expenses. It is known that a compensation judgment of 20 million won was issued in a separate compensation lawsuit filed against a woman identified by A as B’s affair counterpart.
Mr. A appealed against the first trial’s ruling, and he also won some of the appeals in June. Afterwards, he appealed to the Supreme Court again, but failed to overturn the judgment of the appeals court as the Supreme Court decided to dismiss the hearing.
Immediately after the appeal trial, A expressed his frustration with the ruling, saying, “Is there no law for victims?” He complained about alimony and child support, raising his voice, saying, “If there was a crime of adultery, I would have been arrested and my stomach would have been cool.”
Earlier, A claimed through a YouTube channel that he informed his parents-in-law Hong Seo-beom and Cho Gap-kyung of his son’s affair several times, but he stayed on the sidelines, and that child support has not been paid until now.
In this regard, Hong Seo-beom explained that some alimony payments and child support were withheld due to the proceedings of the appeal. They bowed their heads through multiple media, saying, “I haven’t intervened in the divorce process because I think I respect the privacy and autonomy of my adult son, regardless of the facts, but as a result, there was a great lack of being able to take a closer look at my child’s faults as a parent.”
In response, A shot again to apologize to himself and his family, not to the public.
Meanwhile, Hong Seo-beom and Jo Gap-kyung married in 1994 and have one son and two daughters. They showed their recent status by appearing on family-related programs such as SBS’s “Star Junior Show Bungeoppang,” JTBC’s “Let’s sell children’s prizes,” and “My Daughter’s Men” Season 3 and 4. Last year, he also appeared on MBC Everyone and MBN’s “I’m grown up, but I’m not going out” and shared his daily life with his two daughters, who grew up as a “kangaroo tribe.”
