The legal status of Kim Min-hee and Hong Sang-soo’s son has come under renewed scrutiny, with a lawyer explaining the differences between the child’s inheritance rights and those of Kim Min-hee herself.
In August, the couple also appeared together publicly for the first time since the birth at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. Although the two have been raising their son together, a number of legal issues remain because Hong Sang-soo is still legally married to his wife.
Hong Sang-soo married his wife, whom he met while studying in the United States, in 1985. The couple has one daughter. In November 2016, Hong Sang-soo filed for divorce. However, the Seoul Family Court rejected his divorce petition in 2019.
The court determined that Hong Sang-soo was responsible for the breakdown of the marriage. He did not appeal the ruling, meaning that his legal marriage remains intact. As a result, Kim Min-hee and Hong Sang-soo are not legally married, and their son is legally considered a child born outside of marriage under Korean law.
The key legal issue is legal acknowledgment of paternity, known as recognition or acknowledgment of paternity (인지, inji). A child born outside of marriage automatically has a legally recognized relationship with the mother through birth. Establishing the legal relationship with the biological father, however, requires a separate legal procedure.
Divorce attorney Yang Na-rae explained in an interview with TV Chosun that Kim Min-hee can register the child as her son even though she is unmarried. If Hong Sang-soo subsequently legally acknowledges the child as his biological son, a legal parent-child relationship between Hong Sang-soo and the child can also be established. In that case, Hong Sang-soo’s family registry could list the child alongside his existing daughter as his legal offspring.
Importantly, being born outside of marriage does not automatically deprive a child of inheritance rights. If Hong Sang-soo legally acknowledges the child, the son would become his legal descendant and would have inheritance rights equal to those of his other child.
In other words, if Hong Sang-soo has two legally recognized children—his daughter from his marriage and his son with Kim Min-hee—both could be legal heirs to his estate. This distinction is important because the child’s legal status and Kim Min-hee’s legal status are not necessarily the same.
The situation is different for Kim Min-hee. Because Kim Min-hee is not Hong Sang-soo’s legal spouse, she would not receive the inheritance rights that Korean law grants to a surviving spouse. Under Korean inheritance law, a legal spouse inherits alongside the deceased person’s descendants. The spouse’s statutory share is also increased by 50% compared with the share of each child.
However, a person in a de facto marriage or common-law relationship does not automatically receive the same statutory inheritance rights as a legally married spouse. Therefore, if Hong Sang-soo were to die after legally acknowledging his son, the child could inherit alongside Hong Sang-soo’s existing daughter, while Kim Min-hee herself would not automatically be entitled to a spouse’s statutory inheritance share.
The child’s inheritance rights ultimately depend on establishing legal paternity through Hong Sang-soo’s acknowledgment. Kim Min-hee, meanwhile, would not gain inheritance rights simply because she and Hong Sang Soo have lived together or share a child.
Kim Min-hee and Hong Sang-soo first met while working together on the 2015 film Right Now, Wrong Then, in which Hong Sang-soo served as director and Kim Min-hee starred. Their relationship later developed into a romantic one and became public in 2016. The following year, Hong Sang-soo publicly acknowledged that he and Kim Min-hee were in love. At the time, Hong Sang-soo’s wife reportedly maintained that she would not agree to a divorce and expressed hope that her husband would eventually return to the family.
Nearly a decade later, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee are now raising a child together, despite their relationship never becoming a legal marriage. Following the birth of their son, Kim Min-hee largely stepped away from public activities to focus on motherhood. She recently returned to filmmaking and also appeared with Hong Sang-soo at the Locarno International Film Festival.
During the festival, Kim Min-hee reportedly spoke about how motherhood had changed her experience on film sets. She revealed that she brought her son to filming locations and balanced breastfeeding with preparing solid food for him. With their son now more than a year old, public interest in the couple has increasingly extended beyond their long-running relationship to questions surrounding their child’s legal status, paternity and future inheritance rights.
The lawyer’s explanation highlights why legal acknowledgment of paternity could be particularly important. If Hong Sang-soo legally acknowledges the child, the son can establish a legal father-child relationship and consequently exercise inheritance rights as his descendant. Without that legal relationship being established, the situation could become significantly more complicated when determining the child’s rights to Hong Sang-soo’s estate.
At the same time, Kim Min-hee’s status would remain separate from that of her son. Having a child with Hong Sang-soo does not itself make her a legal spouse or automatically grant her the inheritance rights of one.
Ultimately, the exact outcome would depend on Hong Sang-soo’s legal family status, whether paternity is formally acknowledged, the existence of other heirs, and any estate-planning arrangements he may make.
Sources: Daum | 스포츠조선