Gerhard Schroeder to wed South Korean translator, making it marriage number five for former German chancellor
Schroeder insisted on Thursday that his relationship with Kim So-yeon had nothing to do with the break-up of his fourth marriage
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will marry a South Korean translator 26 years his junior after his fourth marriage fell apart, he said on Thursday.
The 73-year-old former German leader – whose colourful private life and multiple marriages earned him the nickname “Audi man”, a reference to the German carmaker’s four-ring symbol – said that he would wed Kim So-yeon this year.
“I’ve already met her family,” he told a press conference in Seoul where the smiling couple stood arm-in-arm in front of the cameras. “The wedding will probably be held in the fall and the exact venue and timing will be decided later.”
Kim, 47, is a Seoul representative of the Economic Development Agency of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and has worked as a Korean translator for Schroeder.
Their relationship emerged last September when Doris Schroeder Kopf, Schroeder’s fourth wife, said in the process of divorcing him that Kim had played a part in the break-up.
Schroeder insisted on Thursday that Kim had nothing to do with the break-up but said he would spend the rest of his life travelling back and forth between Germany and the South.