No one would have thought that superrich NFL owner Kim Pegula had a sad past.

The co-owner of high-profile professional American football teams -- along with her husband Terry Pegula -- has an estimated combined net worth of a whopping $4 billion, according to Forbes. 

However, Kim started her life penniless.

Abandoned in front of a police station in Seoul, Kim became an orphan when she was five years old.

Nonetheless, leaving her birth country and heading for the U.S. to be adopted by New York residents Ralph and Marilyn Kerr in 1974, Kim started on her journey to become the wife of a self-made billionaire.

Growing up in Fairport, New York, Kim studied communications at Houghton College, and during her senior year in 1991, she met her future husband, who at that time was running a small company. Offered a public relations job position, Kim started to work for Terry, and the two fell in love and married in 1993 despite the 18-year age difference.

Through time, Terry’sthe natural gas and oil drilling company East Resources expanded, which he sold for $6.5 billion in 2010 to acquire the couple’s first NFL team Buffalo Sabres for $189 million. They created the Pegula Sports & Entertainment empire that now additionally owns the $1.4 billion NFL team Buffalo Bills, an indoor lacrosse team, music recording studio and label, as well as the Harbor Center in Buffalo worth $123 million.

(seoyounglee@heraldcorp.com)
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Hong Seung-wan
Cheon Ye-seon
Seo Jee-yeon
Yoon Hyun-jong
Min Sang-seek
Lee Seo-young