| Lee Yoon-hyung | |||||||||
| Birth Date: | 1979 | ||||||||
| Birth Place: | South Korea | ||||||||
| Death Place: | New York City, U.S. | ||||||||
| Death Cause: | Suicide by hanging | ||||||||
| Mother: | Hong Ra-hee | ||||||||
| Father: | Lee Kun-hee | ||||||||
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Lee Yoon-hyung (; – November 18, 2005) was a South Korean millionaire who is the daughter of Samsung Group former chairman Lee Kun-hee. On November 18, 2005, Lee died by suicide at the age of 26 in her New York City apartment.[1]
Lee was born in South Korea. Her father was Samsung former chairman Lee Kun-hee, and her mother was Hong Ra-hee. She was the youngest of the four children; she had an elder brother Lee Jae-yong and two elder sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun.
Lee graduated from Ewha Womans University in Seoul with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French language and French literature.[2] She was a first year graduate student in arts management at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Her cause of death was originally reported in both American and South Korean media as a car crash due to the social stigma against suicide, but the actual details were subsequently published after inquiries by reporters from The Korea Times.
At the time of her death, Lee was a graduate student at the New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and her father was in the United States undergoing treatment for lung cancer.[3] A doorman at her building told reporters that she sometimes stayed in her apartment for a week at a time, and there were reports that her father had forbidden her to marry her middle-class Korean boyfriend.
At the time of her death, Lee had a personal fortune of more than £100 million (US$157 million).
In 2003, it was revealed that she owned $191 million of Samsung stock.
In her spare time, she was very keen on car racing and many extreme sports. She also launched a personal blog to show her daily life to the public and it became very popular in South Korea.[4]