Princess Mako of Japan has left the royal family following a years-long engagement with fiancé Kei Komuro that was dogged by media scrutiny and left her with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mako and his fiancée, Kei Komuro, both 30, announced their engagement four years ago, too much acclaim. However, things quickly deteriorated when tabloids reported on a money issue involving Komuro's mother, forcing the media to turn against him. The wedding was postponed, and he moved to New York to study law in 2018, only to return in September.
An official from the Imperial Household Agency (IHA), which oversees the family's affairs, submitted paperwork to a local office, avoiding the myriad rites and ceremonies associated with royal marriages, including a reception. Mako also declined to accept a one-time payment of around $1.3 million, as required by Japanese law, for royal women who marry commoners and become ordinary citizens.
In September, Kei Komuro returned from New York, where he worked in a law firm, took the state bar test, and graduated from Fordham University Law School with a law degree. The couple intends to move to New York.
