Goo Hara's Brother Speaks About Their Absent Mother Claiming Half Of Her Inheritance

Goo Ho In, the brother of the late star Goo Hara, has spoken in an interview about how their mother is now claiming half of Goo Hara’s inheritance after she abandoned them as children.

On March 9, Dispatch reported that Goo Hara’s family is currently in a legal dispute over her inheritance, following her passing last November. Her brother has filed a lawsuit against their mother for a ruling on the division of Goo Hara’s inheritance. Their mother has appointed a legal representative and is claiming that as Goo Hara’s direct ancestor, she should receive 50 percent of her inheritance.

It’s reported that Goo Hara’s father is rejecting the claims being made by her mother, and he has already given his own 50 percent share of the inheritance to Goo Hara’s brother. The inheritance is therefore split half and half between her brother and mother. Dispatch quotes a representative of Goo Hara’s father as saying that their mother had left the children when they were young. Their father had traveled all over the country to make money to support the two siblings, and Goo Hara was taken care of by her grandmother and brother.

Her brother is expressing his opposition to his mother claiming half of Goo Hara’s inheritance, based on Article 1008-2 (Contributory Portion) of the Civil Act, which aims for fairness between co-inheritors. This states that among direct ancestors, importance must be given to someone who particularly provided for the descendant or contributed to the maintenance and increase of their property. Goo Hara’s brother has stated that their father provided their child support and living costs, and he also actively helped as a guardian after her debut.

Goo Hara’s brother spoke with the news outlet SBS FunE about the situation. The outlet described that Goo Ho In and Goo Hara were born two years apart, and they were very precious to each other. When Goo Ho In was in fourth grade and Goo Hara was in second grade, their mother left home and cut off contact with them. While their father went to earn a livelihood for the family by working on construction sites all around the country, he left the two children with their grandmother and aunt. The outlet states that at a time when the children needed the care and affection of their parents, they spent their school years relying on each other instead.

Goo Hara debuted in 2008 with KARA and went on to even establish herself as a Korean Wave star in Japan. Her mother gave up her parental rights and custody in 2006. However, she’s described as appearing at Goo Hara’s funeral in search of her “rights as a parent.”

Goo Ho In told the news outlet that their mother had showed up at the funeral parlor and insisted on appearing as the family’s chief mourner. “The family stopped her, so she caused a disturbance,” he said. “She was holding her phone in an unnatural way, and it turned out that she was filming a video with it. It seemed like she was collecting evidence, so [we] took away the phone and deleted the video. Two days after the funeral, I was contacted about an issue with my sister’s real estate. When I went there, there were two people who described themselves as my mother’s lawyers. That’s when I thought, ‘Ah, she’s appointed lawyers to go after Hara’s inheritance.’ I felt very betrayed.”

Goo Ho In went on to say, “I remember the day that my mother left home. I was young, so I’m not sure why she left. My father asked my sister and me in an oddly kind way, ‘Is there anything you’d like to have?’ My father made an extreme choice that day. My sister and I watched together as my father was put into the ambulance. To my sister Hara who was in second grade at the time, our mother’s sudden absence and my father’s pain must have always caused her sadness.”

Both Dispatch and SBS FunE have shared photos of what is described as a diary entry estimated to have been written by Goo Hara in 2016. She wrote about how she was struggling with missing her mother, and she also wrote about how much she wanted love, attention, and warmth.

SBS FunE reports that Goo Hara was the one who first sought out their mother. It’s described that when she was receiving treatment for depression, a medical professional suggested that she find her mother. In the fall of 2017, she met her mother for the first time in 10 years, and Goo Ho In recalls that Goo Hara, who had lived without her mother for so long, had been quiet and unemotional when meeting her.

“When Hara made the extreme choice last year, she was urgently in need of a guardian,” he said. “My father wasn’t able to come, and I wasn’t eligible to be her guardian, and so I quickly contacted our mother. When Hara woke up in the intensive care unit, the first thing she said was, ‘Why did you call mom here?’ Hara could have contacted our mother, but being around our mother was awkward and difficult for her.”

Goo Ho In explained the reason why he got up the courage to talk about this in an interview. “Hara and I were abandoned by our mother, and so we grew up scarred,” he said. “Maybe that’s why Hara kept wanting to be loved. She wanted to keep being loved by her fans too and so it was even harder for her. I’m upset that the person who’s the reason that Hara had such a hard time is now claiming to be her real mother when Hara’s not even here now. I can’t even stand it when the words ‘I’m Hara’s mom’ come out of her mouth.”

According to the Civil Act, in the case of the death of an adult without children, their mother or father have a right to their inheritance even if they didn’t personally raise them. SBS FunE describes that their father had given all of his rights to Goo Hara’s inheritance to her brother, saying that he was sorry for spending his whole life working and being unable to play his role as a parent for his children.

SBS FunE writes that there has been controversy over the Civil Act stating that a mother or father has the right to the inheritance of a child even if they didn’t provide for them. The outlet states that the law only acknowledges extremely uncommon cases such as crimes against humanity, for example murder, as a reason for disqualifying someone from their right to inheritance.

Goo Ho In’s legal representative stated that the reason they’ve put in a request for trial is that current law cannot provide protection even if a parent goes after financial gains following the death of a child after they abandoned them and shirked their duty as a parent to raise their children. They stated, “This not only impedes justice, it’s a secondary source of pain for the family left behind. Although it won’t be easy, we want to make this case a precedent that becomes a touchstone.”

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