The wealthier people are, the more they emphasize social standing and matching in marriage. The Cinderella story of marrying a prince or a poor boy marrying into a wealthy family may be common in novels, but it's rare in reality. And even if it happens, the protagonists may not be able to withstand the pressure, with most ending in tragedy. Furthermore, ordinary people who marry into wealth can be corrupted by money, or their true nature may be revealed immediately after achieving their goal.
Im Woo-jae isn't very handsome, and he's incompetent, a notorious "good-for-nothing." How could he possibly win Lee Boo-jin's heart and achieve such a breakthrough in his life? Shen Fang always felt that this was a scheme by Lee Boo-jin.
In order to stay with Samsung, the eldest princess favored Lee Boo-jin, the poor bodyguard. Lee Boo-jin is the eldest daughter of Lee Kun-hee, the former chairman of the Samsung Group (who passed away in 2020). She has an older brother, Lee Jae-yong, and two younger sisters.
From birth, Lee Boo-jin was the "little princess" of South Korea, as Samsung Group was already one of the top conglomerates in South Korea at that time.
By the time Lee Boo-jin grew up and reached marriageable age, Samsung Group had become the largest company in South Korea, with annual revenue reaching up to 20% of South Korea's GDP.
For every 5 units of GDP, 1 unit is contributed by Samsung, demonstrating Samsung's importance to South Korea. At the time, some jokingly said: There are three things South Koreans cannot avoid in their lives: paying taxes, death, and Samsung.
Although this is a joke, it truly reflects the size of the Samsung Group. Without Samsung, South Korea is practically an empty shell.
With such a powerful family backing her, Lee Boo-jin's life is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. What's even more enviable is that she has an angelic face, with looks that rival those of female celebrities. Even now, in her fifties, she still exudes elegance and poise, making her the epitome of a beautiful female CEO straight out of a novel.
With her stunning beauty and status as the daughter of South Korea's richest man, what kind of man could possibly be worthy of Lee Boo-jin? Looking across the entire country, the number of men who qualify could probably be counted on one hand. But to everyone's astonishment, after much deliberation, Lee Boo-jin ultimately chose the relatively unknown Im Woo-jae, a poor bodyguard from a humble background.
Why did Lee Boo-jin marry Im Woo-jae? This is a question many people have pondered.
Some say it's because Im Woo-jae is handsome, but that's hard to believe. In terms of looks, Lee Boo-jin is far superior to Im Woo-jae. Even if she were from an ordinary background, let alone being the eldest daughter of the Samsung Group, with her looks, finding a man more handsome than Im Woo-jae would be a piece of cake.
Some people say it's because Im Woo-jae came from a humble background and was easy to control, so that Lee Boo-jin could make the decisions at home after they got married.
This may have been Lee Boo-jin's initial thought, but subsequent events proved that even if Lee Boo-jin had thought this way, it was merely wishful thinking on her part. Because Im Woo-jae, like many men, was adept at domestic violence and infidelity, but the only thing he wasn't good at was making money.
In short, the real reason why Lee Boo-jin favored Im Woo-jae is hard for outsiders to know, but from her life trajectory after marriage, it is not difficult to deduce a more reasonable guess: she married Im Woo-jae in order to stay at Samsung.
South Korea is a country with a very strong patriarchal ideology. Although Lee Boo-jin is the daughter of Lee Kun-hee, she could not escape the fate of marrying into a wealthy and powerful family. If she accepted a marriage of equal social standing and married into another South Korean conglomerate, she would inevitably have to prioritize her husband's family's business after marriage, and might even become a housewife, which was something the career-driven Lee Boo-jin could never accept.
The only way to break the deadlock was to marry into a poor family. This would not only give her significant influence in her husband's family but also allow her to continue her career within Samsung. Therefore, Lee Boo-jin's decision to marry a poor man was the optimal choice. She successfully gained control of two Samsung-owned companies, Shilla Hotel and Samsung Everland, becoming the first female president of a Samsung subsidiary.
Lee Boo-jin not only inherited her parents' good looks, but also her father's business acumen. When she took over Hotel Shilla, the company was losing money year after year, but Lee Boo-jin turned it around in just a few years and set a record for performance.
In the years following her marriage, Lee Boo-jin's career took off, and her personal assets quickly climbed to 14 billion won, making her the 9th richest person in South Korea in 2015, and also the richest woman in South Korea that year.
Unfortunately, while Lee Boo-jin's career was going smoothly, her marriage was a complete mess. In 2014, she filed for divorce, thus beginning a highly publicized drama of divorce in a wealthy family, which did not end until five years later with a court ruling.
Her husband was a good-for-nothing; during the divorce, he even demanded 7 billion won. Im Woo-jae was born in 1968, two years older than Lee Boo-jin, and came from a very ordinary family.
When Lee Kun-hee learned that his daughter was dating a poor bodyguard, he was furious. He ordered his daughter to stop seeing Im Woo-jae, but Lee Boo-jin refused to comply.
Lee Kun-hee then approached Im Woo-jae, using both soft and hard tactics to force him to leave his daughter, but Im Woo-jae stubbornly refused to back down. (It's also quite possible that Lee Boo-jin made him a promise.) Faced with the unbreakable alliance between his daughter and prospective son-in-law, Lee Kun-hee finally relented and agreed to their marriage.
In 1999, 19-year-old Lee Boo-jin married 31-year-old Im Woo-jae. Lee Kun-hee held a grand wedding for his eldest daughter, and "Prince Consort" Im Woo-jae became the envy of all Korean men.
Seeing that the deed was done, Lee Kun-hee had no choice but to accept this son-in-law from a humble background. In order to make Im Woo-jae worthy of the status of "Samsung's son-in-law," Lee Kun-hee spent money to send him to study in the United States.
Unexpectedly, Im Woo-jae was a natural academic failure who couldn't even learn English. In order to escape the extra study abroad assignment from his father-in-law, he threatened to commit suicide twice, leaving Lee Kun-hee with no choice but to bring him back to South Korea.
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