The Millionaire Heiress Who Was Forbidden From Marrying Her Commoner Boyfriend

A young heiress to a multi-billion dollar fortune met a tragic end.

Lee Yoon Hyung (born in 1979) was the youngest of four children of Lee Kun Hee, the chairman of the Samsung Group. She one of the five richest women in Korea at the time alongside her mother and sister. It was revealed in 2003 that she owned $191 million USD of Samsung stock.

Lee Yoon Hyung was known by the public for her incredible wealth, gorgeous looks, and playful personality. She even ran a blog called Pretty Yoon Hyung that detailed her extravagant lifestyle which she had to close in 2003 due to its growing popularity.

As a powerful heiress, she was always accompanied by two full-time bodyguards when she was in Korea. After graduating from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, she moved to New York, USA, to complete a graduate degree at NYU Steinhardt. She continued to live a glamorous life, staying at a luxurious apartment in the famed Astor Place with a 24-hour driver at her beck and call.

Despite this lavish lifestyle, her life was not as happy as it may have appeared to be. A doorman at her building told reporters that she would stay in her apartment for a week at a time while a source close to her suggested that she was lonely and depressed during her time in New York.

Part of the reason behind this was supposedly tied to her romantic relationship. Lee Yoon Hyung fell in love with a middle class man back in South Korea who, although not poor, was considered a “commoner” compared to the millionaire. Her family forbade her from seeing him, with her parents intervening as they considered him too lowly of match for their daughter.

Lee Yoon Hyung died by suicide on November 18, 2005 after hanging herself in her New York apartment.

She was 26 years old.