Japanese Figure Skating Superstar Yuzuru Hanyu Announces Divorce Months After Marriage Citing Media and Fan Intrusion into Privacy
This is such a weird (and terribly sad if true) story and tangentially related to the topic of media and fan intrusion into the lives of celebrities its worth a post. Figure skating world legend and Japanese sports superstar Yuzuru Hanyu (who may be second only to Shohei Ohtani for how globally famous he is) has announced that he is divorced from his recently married wife. He announced the marriage only months ago shocking the skating world in the sense that it seemingly came from nowhere but I never sense any negative feedback from his fans or the media. Just like “huh?” and then “great!” seemed to be the response. But now he’s announced that he and his wife (who remains anonymous but he said she’s not a celeb) have divorced and he cited the reasons as the public (media and fans, I assume) intrusion into their private life and the public slander, false articles, gossip, and rumor about her. He says the divorce is to protect her and let her live a life free of this type of horrible scrutiny. I would have loved it if this couple just IDGAF and flashed the middle finger at any intrusion of their life together and went on to just be married and I dunno live their own lives who cares what else is said about them. But I guess there are cultural issues with this perhaps and regardless Yuzuru Hanyu has asked for privacy and no further speculations.
So sad…but people can be so nasty.
Wow! I didn’t know he got married and now divorced. For some reason, I completely understand his feelings and this ending to their love story just proves he loves his wife dearly. Maybe she couldn’t live the celebrity life so he didn’t want to put her through this type of life. I remember a few years ago my favorite Japanese actor Hiroki Narimiya left the industry, I was left heartbroken but at the same time I understood what he did was the best for him. Now he is happy doing something else. Haruma Miura didn’t get this chance and to this day I still think about him, his struggles to live as a normal person. Fans need to know their boundaries, reality and a public life are two different things, some people can take it, some can. Be kind to everyone.
It has nothing to do with his fans so why go after them? It is even literally in his statement?
The tabloids were relentless. From making up all sorts of stories, to constantly following them, she couldn’t leave the house out of fear, to we know this offering really big monetary rewards for any kind of information about her previous life (they were looking for info on previous boyfriends especially) to harassing her mother and family.
The real problem here is that Japan does not have any strict laws that would stop this. So he was forced to divorce.
@Notfans
My bad, in this case, it’s the TABLOIDS not FANS. Should have known, Japanese fans are not as bad as in other east Asian countries. This is similar to cases in the West, paparazzis and trashy magazines vs fans.
@neen
It’s terrible. When he was younger he already had a really bad situation with tabloids when they thought he was dating a girl who used to go to high school with him. It turned into a nightmare for her. He had to beg to leave her alone because they had nothing to do with each other.
I think maybe he thought that now that he wasn’t active any longer they wouldn’t be so aggressive but he is still a major celebrity and it went totally off rails. They named multiple women as his wife, kept writing all sorts of things. Some of his neighbours actually agreed to talk to the tabloids and spilled what they knew.
I feel so sorry for him because he didn’t have the easiest life (what with the Tohoku earthquake and suffering from survival guilt etc) and it finally looked like it was looking up and then this. Good people really have it hard.
Although his two-time Olympic gold medals created a cult following of FS fans, I thin he was overrated. He luckily snatched the 2nd gold medal thanks to unexpected flop of American FS legend Nathan Chen who literally had beaten him up in almost every game they competed with until Nathan got his Olympic gold medal. Fanyu (aka fans of Hanyu) had been so rabid (no less crazy than Kpop fans lol), gone all nuts stalking, and dissing Nathan Chen in the comment section under EACH of his FS vids before he finally won the Olympics. LOL.
As a FS fan for years, I didn’t even know Hanyu got married. There were used to be rumors about him being gay. Unlike Nathan who has obviously way more technical prowess than Hanyu but a very stoic guy in real life, Hanyu had been creating more buzz and juicy stories in the media spotlight for the FS world. I hope Hanyu will be doing well and everyone will just leave his private life alone.
When ever you open your mouth, idiocy comes out.
Delirious! I recall you’re among those Chinese loving excessive mental gymnastics by which I always feel pretty amused! Your mouth only spelt lunacy each time you stalked me like this and nothing from there is worth serious attention. I can imagine you are seething whenever my comment pops up. LMAO
please do your whining in gs or reddit..this is so embrassing…in 2018 urboy flop so hard after being campaign as a gold medal candidates and in 2022 being ignore eventho he won gold and being overshadow by a 4th place skater…go back to fs forum
I knew this would be coming since there’s a huge cult following of bitter fanyus in Asia. @all the rabid fanyus, surely you have been seething all the time since 2018 because your idol had been an obvious loser in ALL the games he competed against Nathan since then. LMAO
Imagine going on an unhinged rant how Hanyu is shit on a post where the topic is hugely serious, especially as this type of abuse and harassment has led to suicide and in this case, has hugely impacted Hanyu’s life. Empathy doesn’t exist in your head, not to mention the ability to discern what is or isn’t appropriate.
Rethink your life.
what a bunch of nonsense. why do you bring Chen here? stoic guy because straight?? nobody cares about him. the article is about the horrid slandering and stalking of Yuzu (who, surprise, is not gay but this is not the point) and his wife by media. he is not overrated, he has way more fans because people watch his amazing skating and like what they see.
Thank you for showing us that Nathan is so irrelevant that you have to pathetically beg for attention for him under the news of a superior skater’s divorce.
Superior skater given Hanyu’s continual losing streak since 2018 until 2022? LMAO. Not everyone cares about Hanyu’s juicy stories in the media or fanyus’ ruckus all the time. Don’t think the whole FS world is revolve around your idol! Nobody needs to solicit any attention for Nathan since he doesn’t need it! He’s a hot Data Science major at Yale, currently working with a lead physician in a med lab over there and preparing pre-med studies for his next step to get in a med school. American ppl respect him a lot as national treasure and the media is very fond of him that there’s always positive coverage about him. His schedule is fully tied up with his studies at a prestigious college and the activities for continual sponsorship/endorsements/FS shows all year round. Nathan is a pride of Chinese Americans and also a pride of the US in sports. Nathan doesn’t need fangirls’ craze to build up his life and fame. There’re always reasons for obvious success and failures in personal life. Just saying. No offense.
@Somebody Yuzuru was actually unbeaten in 2018 and 2020 🙂 And between 2018-2022 he completed the Super Slam (something your toxic fandom is hilariously butthurt about because it’s among the numerous achievements Yuzuru has and Nathan will never have) and broke 7 world records (19 in total against your fave stuck in single digits), among other things. I didn’t bother reading the rest of your nonsense message because one can only tolerate so much pathetic clout chasing. The point stands that if your fave were relevant, you wouldn’t be desperate to the point of trying to promote him *under a post about someone else’s marriage*. Read that last sentence until you realize how pitiful that is, then log off and touch grass.
@NotHereForIt…Thank you for setting the record straight on Yuzu’s achievements. Am not a follower of ice skating but have friends who are big Yuzu fans so whatever I know have been through osmosis from their fangirling so I was all confused about Somebody’s claim that he was on a losing streak during those times cause I would have remember my friends getting sad face about it. I was giving Somebody the benefit of the doubt cause they’re always obsessive about how “data” means everything so I was thinking if someone is so anal about data, they surely can’t be lying about records but I still was confused 😅
LOL! Fanyus as usual refuse to accept the fact! Hanyu has been on a losing streak to Nathan since 2018 whenever HE COMPETED AGAINST NATHAN, be it annual GP final leading to the World Championship or 2022 Winter Olympics. I had followed FS since 2017 and watched each game of Nathan Chen competing with Hanyu. Other than 2018 Olympics when Nathan unexpectedly flopped his short program, Hanyu had NEVER beaten Nathan in ANY games since. This is how he’s described and every FS buff knows the following records of Nathan Chen:
Nathan, who is regarded as one of the greatest figure skaters of all time, holds the highest-winning percentage in competitions in the modern era with a more-than-three-year winning streak from 2018 to 2021 in what has been described as one of the most-dominant four-year stretches in the sport’s history. He’s also dubbed as the “quad king”. Chen is the first skater to have landed all types of quadruple jumps, except the quadruple Axel, in competition. He has broken world and national records, and is the current world record holder for men in all three competition segments: the short program, free skate, and combined total score under the ISU Judging System.
All the records are in ISU not in obsessed fanyus’ head. LMAO. I had seen how bitter fanyus breakdown off rink in the games since they were not able to face Hanyu’s flops on ice and defeats by Nathan Chen again and over again that had continued since 2018 until 2022 Winter Olympics. LOL. It’s amazing to come across ridiculous fanyus again on a drama blogging site who even claimed Hanyu had never been on a losing streak to Nathan since 2018 , completely opposite to the ISU records!!! Such a laughingstock!
@R, these fanyus are delirious and blatantly denying the FACT that Hanyu had been indeed on a losing streak to Nathan Chen since 2018 in EACH game they competed against each other. It’s all in the ISU record system. And I watched EACH game these two competed with each other since 2018. Hanyu had NEVER beaten Nathan since 2018. Nathan won all the big three titles in ISU games since 2019-2022: Grand Pixel Final, World Championship, and Winter Olympics.
I did not only watch men’s FS. I also watched female FS and therefore knew what had happened during that period up to 2022 Olympics. You can google ISU records yourself. I just can’t believe fanyus’ obnoxious obsession of their idol could be so dramatic to the extent that they just deny the ISU records. LOL
@Somebody “My fave! My fave! I’m pathetic to the point of trying to make someone else’s marriage about my fave! Please, someone, give my irrelevant fave attention! Please!” Nobody cares, you pitiful lying clout chaser. Touching grass is not enough for you, eat the grass.
@NotHereForIt, LOL. I don’t expect you to be level-headed when Nathan is mentioned. I’ve seen worst when many obsessed fanyus were on the verge of mental breakdown in the auditoriums seeing your idol fall hard on the ice and lose games to Nathan. Nathan has been deemed as the biggest nemesis to your idol. Fanyus have been bitter and resentful about Nathan who have defeated Fanyus in EACH game they competed with each other since 2018. Even Nathan won ALL the ISU GP Finals and World Championship titles since 2018 plus the 2022 Winter Olympics, Fanyus still hollered everywhere: Hanyu is superior to Nathan. Hanyu is the best men figure skater in the history.
LOL, so shameless with such poor sportsmanship! Hanyu never took his defeats well and continued to give his obsessed fans illusion that he’d beat Nathan someday to the point a lot of rabid fanyus had been bullying and harassing Nathan online for years. Both sides of Hanyu and Fanyus don’t know humility. And obviously you are still not down your high horse yet. It’s Hanyu’s insecurity about his own status in FS and fanyus hubris making Hanyu himself miserable, either on or off the ice. Just saying.
That being said, I don’t think it’s ok for anyone to be nosey about celebrities privet lives. Nonetheless, every time Hanyu’s name was in the news, I couldn’t help thinking about how obnoxious his fans have been to harass Nathan Chen for years. Along with C drama fandoms and Kpop fandoms, Fanyu is the most toxic among all kinds of fans.
Typo – celebrities’ private lives…
Koala, why is my comment not posted? Is that bcos I made some points not in favor of Hanyu and his fans? LOL
disappointed that you didnt read his statement properly. he clarly said the reason is media harassment. even international media state the reason properly.
But not Japanese media. I have been following very closely and almost all media have redacted the part about the tabloids and are throwing the blame at fans even though he himself was super clear in his statement.
What is really crazy to me is that Japan has no laws that can put a stop to this. But then no matter what westerners think about it, Japan is messed up in many ways as can be seen in various disgusting court verdicts (father rapes daughter for years, judge lets him go because not saying anything as a child must have meant she wanted it etc).
When it comes to harassment, today a few people talked about how they got approached and were terrified of the way the tabs went after them including one of the women. It’s a real problem and yet there will be no solution because the Japanese way is always not to rock the boat and sweep it under the carpet.
Yuzuru himself has solely cited media intrusion, stalking, defaming, as the reason. It was *not* fan intrusion. Putting words in his mouth and making wrong assumptions like this is diverting attention from the true culprits, the media companies who abused their immense power to find him and his loved ones’ addresses and harass them to the brink. It plays into their hands because they want to deny responsibility by throwing the blame onto fans. His fans are respectful and wanted nothing but his happiness and fought those companies in whatever way they can, but were ultimately powerless against the might of the evil media. Yuzu did so much for his country, brought them the glory of two consecutive Olympic victories, donated so much to earthquake reconstruction efforts, and boosted their economy and tourism with his ice shows and stellar record as Sendai ambassador. And in return, the media violated his privacy and ruined his happiness with the person he holds dear. My only wish now is for him to be happy and safe and see the media answer for their crime.
I knew this would be coming since there’s a huge cult following of bitter fanyus in Asia. @all the rabid fanyus, surely you have been seething all the time since 2018 because your idol had been an obvious loser in ALL the games he competed against Nathan since then. LMAO
Please go to a therapist and bring a screenshot of this unhinged comment you wrote so that they can evaluate why you’re so full of unhealthy hatred towards a stranger that you react in this irrational and heartless way to news about paparazzi stalking an athlete to the point of having to divorce for his partner’s safety.
People reap what they sow. Hanyu is a stark example of excessive idol worshiping. Fanyus’ obsession with Hanyu and his obvious love of fame put him always under the spotlight of media. He obviously liked and enjoyed it but now seeing side effects of overexposure to public fame and attention.
Fanyus, like many Kpop fans and C drama fans, should be the ones constantly keep their mental states in check.
I haven’t followed FS since 2022 Winter Olympics. Therefore, I have no interest in whatever has happened. But it’s amusing to see lunatic fanyus denying Hanyu’s losing records again, not on Youtube FS channels, but on drama SM. LOL
@Somebody The only lunatic here is you, lying freak.
Lunacy is an appropriate label on fanyus. Every FS fans know that. You’re bitter! Even your idol has been on a losing streak to Nathan Chen, you still can’t take it well and live in your own fantasy that he’s superior!? LOL.
Are you on drug?
@Somebody…Hmm from what I’ve seen , Yuzu doesn’t seem to court the media like what you said. He doesn’t even have social media of any form and seems to go off grid until it’s competition time. He’s so low key that him getting married took seemingly everyone by surprise so am not sure I see your argument that he’s reaping what he sows.
And let me ask you this because you seem very critical about Yuzu who has a very intense fandom which you seem to blame him for. Xiao Zhan also has a very intense fandom that I think sometimes really negatively reflect on him (which can be said lots of celebs’ other fandoms do too but his tends to stand out due to sheer number alone) and I don’t think it’s his fault that he has such a fandom. If XZ, one day, also has to divorce his partner because of the intense stalking by the media/ fans, would you also blame him and say that he’s reaping what he sows? Do you also blame XZ for having such a crazy fandom? I want to propose this hypothetical to you because your comments really do lack empathy for such an intensely sad situation. Putting aside what you think about him on the ice, Yuzu seems like such a decent guy. He donated ton to his hometown after the earthquake and as far as I know hasn’t said or done anything problematic. So your comments really come off as callous and mean spirited. I think you don’t think you view your comments in that way at all and that you’re just spewing facts thus I want to propose the XZ hypothetical to you and perhaps you can imagine how your comments read to others.
And before you come at me about freedom of speech, yes, you can say whatever you want to say and yes, we can not engage with you, etc etc.
She is not a xz fan. She just used xz to step on other people, bringing him hatred on purpose.
She registered on Reddit, came to the cdrama sub and within two days raised a huge stink there pretending to be a xz fan, then deleted her account, leaving actual xz fans to deal with the consequences.
@R, XZ =/= Hanyu. They have completely different personalities. XZ is very humble. Hanyu isn’t. A lot of FS fans thought Hanyu liked to grab public attention and spotlight on the ice. There were many incidents in the warm-up practice sessions before the real games showing that sign. But it’s too tiring for me to go into details. Hanyu had never taken his continual defeats by Nathan quite well. For years, he struggled to land two difficult quads without falls or flaws that many points were taken away by ISU judges. But he decided to even practice quad Axel, the most difficult jump so far that even Nathan had never landed successfully. Hanyu showed off his practice of quad Axel with obvious failures in the practice sessions while getting exclamations from fans in the auditorium. He did that just because that’s the only quad jump that Nathan has never landed successfully. And he wanted to prove he’s better than Nathan. He needed attention A LOT. He couldn’t move on from his prime time. So, he continued to give his delusional fans false impression that he’s a superior skater to Nathan Chen even Chen won all the important titles since 2018 after his surprising flop of Olympics short program. Hanyu’s hubris on the ice was so obvious and his fans have been following him like a cult!!!!
Fanyus had been harassing Nathan on a daily basis under EACH of his FS videos on Youtube. I had followed Nathan’s games and shows and even practice vids every day for years until 2022 Olympics. We fans of Nathan basically fought with Fanyus EVERY day on each of Nathan’s video just to defend our athlete. We didn’t go to Hanyu’s video to diss him but Fanyus had been dissing Nathan nonstop since 2018. There’re reasons why Fanyus are considered very toxic. Their rabid behavior proves that. Nathan Chen read comments from YT in earlier days when he’s younger and therefore his psychology was badly affected by those hateful comments and mockery. He said nerves got him badly sometimes in the game and therefore he did not do well. But he found a psychologist to work with after his flop of 2018 Olympics. That helped him get over his nerves and recover his confidence.
I dislike Hanyu very much and detest Fanyus a lot for that reason, just like many C drama fans and Kpop fans. No offense. Hanyu and Fanyus have poor sportsmanship. I have to admit I’m indifferent to his private life including divorce. But this blog refreshed my unpleasant memories of exchanges with fanyus and therefore my comments.
@R, I’m making the last reply to you before getting back to work. Yes, I just stated some facts of what happened. It’s what I believe that we reap what we sow. It’s a truth even it may sound apathetic and cold in some cases. But that’s what I believe about Hanyu’s divorce, I have to admit. I personally do not like his personality. He always made tons of excuses for his losses to Nathan after the games except that he would never admit Nathan was a better skater than he even he continued to lose each game to Nathan after 2018 Olympics. FS has to do with age. Nobody will look down upon you if you age out of your prime time. But he wanted to be regarded as on top all the time. He did a lot of crazy things to show off in practice sessions before the games to get loud exclamations from his fans in the auditoriums. I looked at those show-off as attention seeking! I don’t care about his personal life and have no idea what he’s like off the ice. But I disapproved of what he’d done on the ice.
Why should I be sympathetic with his divorce? I don’t feel anything about a stranger’s marriage, happy or divorced. Then why should I be sympathetic with Hanyu’s divorce? You think I should just becos he’s an idol of many fanyus including your friends? LMAO. Does it make sense I should treat him differently from anyone else who’s nobody to me? LOL. Or do you think Koala shared Hanyu’s news of divorce to expect sympathy from everyone? C’mon! Don’t you guys ask too much just bcos he’s your idol? Equally I’ll ask you to put yourselves in the shoes of those who don’t really care anything about Hanyu’s personal life! Should you feel bad about divorces of American celebrities since there so many? LOL. It’s Hanyu’s own choice to get married and then divorced soon afterwards. Hanyu is irrelevant to me other than the bad memories of fanyu’s hostility towards Nathan Chen.
LOL @No. You’re really fond of mental gymnastics! Reddit is irrelevant to my social media life. I don’t have any account there. I did read some shitty posts/comments about XZ in Cdrama and those turned me off. By your crazy logic, you must be a doppelgänger of the following visitors:
No = Smh = lamo = Lilith = Anon = etc.
Did I miss anyone here? LOL
@No, You’re fond of mental gymnastics! LOL. By your crazy logic, you must be a doppelgänger of other visitors here:
No = Smh = lmao = Lilith = Anon = etc.
Did I miss any name else? LOL
@Somebody…no, I don’t expect you to feel it’s a sad situation simply because he’s an idol to many, I expect you to, if not have sympathy for him then at least don’t be intentionally hateful in an article about how he has to divorce due to his loved one being stalked incessantly. Like no one at any level of fame, no matter what they do professionally, deserves to have their marriage torn asunder due to stalking. That’s where the main crux of our difference is.
@Somebody…oops! Forgot to finish my comment when I submitted the first time so continuing here.
I don’t follow ice skating so I don’t know the etiquettes of the sports but you’re criticizing Yuzu for practicing that one jump even tho he always failed at it is so odd to me. Are skaters not supposed to attempt doing difficult jumps just because they always fail at it? Like isn’t the whole point of practice is to continuously doing something you’re not good at? And I imagine being a 2 times Gold medalists means that Yuzu is even more obsessed with trying to succeed at things that he failed at doing. I would imagine this the mentality of all Olympic level athletes. So this particular example you mentioned is very ??? to me unless there’s some rule that you can’t perform difficult jumps during practices before a competition?
You seem to have a lot of beef against Yuzu fans with them leaving comments under Nathan related videos / articles but don’t you find what you’re doing here similar as well? Not a direct equivalent because Yuzu is probably not reading this blog but that practice of dragging the person in the article by comparing them with another is very similar in practice here.
@R, As I said, I’m not gonna get into nitty-gritty of all the mess between fanyus and fans of Nathan. There were A LOT in a time span of 4 years. But Fanyus have left a foul taste in my mouth. I’m not gonna pretend to be hypocritically nice to them whenever they threw shade on Nathan that was exactly what happened on this tread again. As to Hanyu, you only heard of one-side story from your friends who are his fans. LOL. I won’t get into futile debate about how his bad sportsman ship in dealing with his losing streak to Nathan encouraged his rabid fans to bully Nathan Chen for years non stop. Almost all the Nathan’s fans hate them to the bone !
I did not say anything negative about Hanyu’s misfortune with his marriage in my fist post. I simply stated FACTS. Hanyu had been on a losing streak to Nathan Chen since 2018 and therefore his rabid fans had been harassing Nathen on social media to the point Nathan had to visit a psychiatrist in the meanwhile and stopped using any SM. Those are facts. I was indifferent to Hanyu’s marriage. But his delusional fans got worked up again blah blah blah about Hanyu’s superiority and denied the fact that their idol had never won any single game against Nathan Chen since 2018. LOL
You can throw shade on me insinuating you’re one-man up and a nicer person. I don’t care. LOL. Nobody has any right to judge me. You’re not my god.
Idk why Koala even has to blog about Hanyu who’s not in the drama business except that there was always drama off rink about him in the past. LOL
@No, You’re fond of mental gymnastics! LOL. By your crazy logic, you must be a doppelgänger of other visitors here:
No = Smh = lmao = Lilith = Anon = etc.
Did I miss any name else? LOL