Live-in partner of SK chairman breaks silence with first-ever interview

T&C Foundation Chairman and gallery director Kim Hee-young in her interview with local magazine Woman Chosun [YONHAP]

T&C Foundation chairwoman Kim Hee-young, the live-in partner of SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, broke her silence with her first-ever press interview in April to discuss her work as a gallery director.

The interview, published Thursday, was held weeks before the appellate court's ruling of 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) in property division against Chey came out in late May concerning his tumultuous divorce with estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong.

“I want people to focus on the exhibition. I worry the exhibition will become an afterthought the moment I make an appearance,” Kim said in her interview with local magazine Woman Chosun.

The T&C Foundation chairwoman said she was aware that her position as gallery director would come under scrutiny, as well as prejudice from some, due to her relationship with Chey.

She denied venturing into the arts industry — a favorite pastime for many conglomerate chiefs’ wives such as Hong Ra-hee, Leeum Museum Director and former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s widow; and even Chey’s estranged wife Roh — because of her relationship, explaining she majored in art and was invited by the Podo Museum on Jeju Island to direct exhibitions.

Her current exhibition, titled “Perhaps Sunny Days,” is her third at the museum. It opened in March of this year and will run through next March.

Though the chairwoman said that “it was not the right time” to discuss Chey’s divorce and that she was careful to not let her personal life cloud her work, her family was nevertheless present in the exhibition. She discussed her son and daughter’s influence and contribution to “Perhaps Sunny Days,” and a dead tree from her childhood days is on display as an installment piece.

Kim continues to work as the Podo Museum's gallery director as of June 20 and will be leaving for Berlin in the summer with scholarship students of her T&C Foundation, according to the interview.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]