Now, humiliated and vilified, she faces spending the next 24 years of her life in prison after being convicted of corruption ‐ a spectacular fall from grace unimaginable six years ago when she became South Korea's first female president amid great fanfare.
Park, 66, grew up in the spotlight at the Blue House, the presidential compound just north of one of Seoul's royal palaces, and enjoyed a pampered life as the eldest child of strongman Park Chung-hee.
Her father, despite widespread rights abuses and a brutal crackdown on dissent, remains a respected figure for many South Koreans for overseeing the country's dramatic economic rise during his 1961-79 rule.
The Park family was treated like royalty by supporters and she was dubbed the young "princess" ‐ a nickname that endured for decades even as she aged.
The liquidation of both her parents five years apart in the 1970s only further fanned public sympathy for the young protege.
Park's mother ‐ widely praised as a dutiful wife and caring mother in the still-traditional society of the day ‐ was rubbed out in 1974 by a Korean-Japanese aiming for her husband. He is believed to have been acting on orders from
North Korea.