This is no K-drama: the fresh prince of South Korea is real royalty, and he’s American
- Five years ago, Andrew Lee found out his relative Yi Seok, ‘The Singing Prince’, was the last emperor of Korea’s Joseon dynasty
- Today, Lee is the official successor to the crown. This is his Cinderella story
Andrew Lee is princely, but in a modern, self-made tech-royalty sense rather than a traditional crown-and-sceptre way. His ears sparkle with diamond studs, while his shoulder-length curls are tucked under a flat-brimmed, hip-hop-style baseball cap emblazoned with the words “Handshake Hodler” – terms used in blockchain and crypto culture.
Lee, 34, also happens to be the newly crowned prince and successor to the imperial throne of Korea.
Until his inauguration in October, Lee led an existence typical to many Korean-Americans, running a tech company and raising two young children with his wife in the suburbs of Las Vegas, where the family recently relocated from Los Angeles.
Lee was born and raised in Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, along the rust belt where only corn and other agricultural industries reign. He says his parents (his father is related to the Yi family) never disclosed their royal relations, so he only learned about the family dynasty through a passing reference from a relative. “I wasn’t aware of our family background,” Lee says.
“You don’t learn much about the Joseon empire or Korean history growing up in the US.”
He dropped out of university in his early 20s. “I don’t really have much of an educational background,” he says, adding that while he was not the best student, he had an interest in computers and coding from a young age. “I went to Purdue University, I ended up transferring to Buffalo, New York. At some point I just left school and started my work on the internet.”