Princess Mako of Japan – who left the royal family to marry her ordinary husband – welcomes her first child

Princess Mako van Japan has welcomed her first child, has announced the Imperial Household Agency.

Mako Kcomurowho is the niece of Emperor Naruhito, left the royal family In 2021 when she married her former classmate Kei Komo, an ordinary one.

The former princess, 33, had to give up her royal status by law and, after her marriage, moved to New York, where her husband is a lawyer.

The decision led to comparisons with Prince Harry And Meghan Marklewho also turned his back on the royal tasks to live privately in the US.

Now she and her husband, also 33, have welcomed their first child.

During a press conference on Friday, a representative of the agency said that both mother and child are in good health, although neither the name of the newborn nor gender were revealed.

Fumihito, Kroon Prince Akishino And Kroon princess Kiko, the parents of Mako, would be happy with the news and the family were the greatest happiness.

“This is a matter of a person who left the imperial family, and we had hoped that she would spend her time in a quiet environment,” said grandmaster Naomasa Yoshida at the conference, as reported in the Japan Times.

“However, we have decided to make the announcement in the light of some media reports (about birth).”

Mako made the headlines around the world in 2021 when she forfeited her royal status sensational To marry her lecture, the 31-year-old Kei Kalkuro.

They married in a civil ceremony in 2021 and Mako moved to New York City to live with her husband.

The withheld ceremony was confronted with protests and was held behind closed doors without one of the splendor of other Japanese royal weddings, which traditionally include a reception and banquet.

Mako read a prepared explanation for a press conference after their wedding and defended her decision to get married and Kei described as “irreplaceable” and said, “Our marriage is a necessary step for us to protect our hearts.”

They also criticized news reports that were written during their engagement that she accused of spreading false information and ‘one -sided rumors’ that had left her ‘grief and pain’. The royal household previously revealed that they suffered from PTSD.

In the past, the princess of Akishino, Mako, who previously held a controversial position in the royal family, took her husband’s name to go through Mako Kcomuro – the first time in her life she had a surname.

In his pre -prepared statement, Kei apologized for every need caused, but said he loved Mako and would support her all their lives together.

“I love Mako. We only get one life, and I want us to spend it with the person we love, “he said. “I feel very sad that Mako has been in a poor condition, mentally and physically, because of the false accusations.”

Mako and Kcomuro met in 2013 at International Christian University in Tokyo and got into secret before they announced their intention to get married in September 2017.

But the wedding was delayed after a financial scandal with an unpaid debt that was reportedly owed by the mother of Kei and suggestions that he married for money.

As part of the announcement, the Royal Household said that Mako would abandon all traditional ceremonies and surrender a payment of £ 1 million to which she was entitled according to the Japanese tradition.

She became the first imperial family member since the Second World War that the payment did not receive while he was getting married with a normal and chose to do this because of the criticism of her who married a man some as unsuitable for a princess.

“There will be different types of difficulties when we start our new life, but we will walk together as we have done in the past,” Mako said at the time, thank everyone for their support.

Mako, who apparently refers to mental health problems, noticed that many people have difficulty and hurt feelings while trying to protect their hearts. ”

She said, “I sincerely hope that our society will be a place where more people can live and protect their hearts with the help of warm help and support from others.”

The position of the princess within the family means that she would have received a full royal marriage if she had chosen to marry a colleague -crowd.

Mako reportedly used her background in art history by serving as an unpaid volunteer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“She has been specifically involved in preparing an exhibition of paintings inspired by the life of a 13th-century monk traveling through Japan as he introduced Buddhism,” according to a 2022 Japan Times article.

Mako has a degree in art and cultural heritage of Japanese International Christian University, where she met her husband.

She then studied art history at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland before she received her master’s in Art Museum and Gallery Studies from the University of Leicester in England.

Kei graduated from the Fordham University Law School and has a job at a law firm in New York.

When he married him, Mako had to give up her place in the imperial family.

All Japanese princesses give up their royal status at the marriage, because there is only male follow -up.

Other princesses are married to ordinary and left the palace. But the reaction to Kei and Mako was particularly incredibly, many of them focused on whether he could support his wife.

Mako’s uncle Keizer Naruhito also married an ordinary, Harvard -grader Masako, who suffered from depression in dressed imperial life.

Former emperor Akihito, the father of Naruhito, was the first member of the imperial family who marry a ordinary one.

The family has no political power, but serves as a symbol of the nation, attending ceremonial events and visiting disaster zones.

The Japanese royal family is confronted with a constant crisis – and has openly admitted that it is from heirs.

The strict follow -up laws of Japan forbid women to rise to the Chrysanthemum throne and force them to give up their titles when they marry civilians.

In the meantime, much of the royal family – with eight members older than 60, while only four members of the family are male.

In June last year, Emperor Naruhito made a rare remark about the crisis that confronted the imperial household.

He said, “The number of male members of the imperial family is declining, they are aging and female members of the imperial family leave the imperial family at the marriage.”

If the marriage to a prince was, they could stay in the family – the problem is that there are no fellow royals for them to get married.

“Because of these factors, the number of members of the imperial family who take public tasks are decreasing compared to earlier,” he continued.

‘This is a problem that relates to the future of the imperial family, but I would not like to respond to things related to the [legal] system.’

His comments caused a rare insight into the Royal Dynasty, because emperors avoid discussing items of political importance since the defeat of Japan in the Second World War.

The slimmed state of the Japanese monarchy is partly due to male primogenitive rules, which means that only male members of the royal family Can follow the throne.