Hong Seok-cheon reveals ex-partner demanded alimony after 4 years together

Hong Seok-cheon paid alimony to a former partner after a four-year relationship—and later discovered that ex had moved in with someone he knew.

The entertainer made the disclosure on the YouTube channel Annyeong Han Saem Yo on June 26. "I am single, but I am always in a relationship," he said. "As I get older, the duration of my relationships gets longer."

He walked through two cohabiting relationships. The first was with a Dutch partner over three years and six months. When it ended, the ex catalogued every item he'd brought into the home and took them back one by one.

The second relationship lasted four years with an American partner. At the breakup, that partner asked for alimony for the time they'd lived together. Hong paid it. "Because of the gratitude for him being by my side during difficult times," he explained. Then he found out the ex had moved into a jeonse apartment in Nonhyeon-dong with a new man—someone Hong already knew.

Hong Seok-cheon came out publicly in 2000, the first entertainer in South Korean show business to do so. In 2008 he adopted two children belonging to his younger sister following her divorce, registering them in his family record and later successfully petitioning a court to change their surname.