In the hallways of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she volunteers, no one has ever greeted her as “Your Imperial Highness” or addressed her as a respectful “Princess.” Here she is an employee like any other, known as Mrs. Mako Komuro, her new marital status. How far away her life seems! When she walks alone through the streets of New York, wearing faded jeans, a baggy shirt and loose hair, we almost forget that Mako has an unusual fate.
As the granddaughter and niece of emperors, she grew up in the shade of the venerable blossoming cherry trees. His birth, his first words and his first steps had brought joy to an entire country. The eldest of Prince Fumihito – the current heir to the throne – and Princess Kiko, she was one of Japan’s most revered figures: her looks were imitated, her actions were scrutinized. Then Mako fell in love with a young man he met at university who was good in every way except that he was a commoner. The worst mistake, in the opinion of the rigid imperial authority, which is responsible for organizing the existence of the emperor and his relatives.
Mako, 32, and her husband Kei Komuro after a shopping trip to Faherty in late July. He asked for her hand in marriage in 2013, when both were still students. ABACA / © ABACA
In September 2017, Mako introduced her fiancé to the press and announced her upcoming wedding… However, faced with the hostility of the Japanese, who dreamed of a better match for their beloved princess, the wedding was postponed indefinitely and Kei Komuro, the future Husband sent to the United States to finish his law degree and get away from his fiancée for a while.
In 2021, Mako, still so in love, confirms that she will marry the woman she loves, even if it means giving up everything, starting with her title and privileges. Because in this thousand-year-old monarchy, the rule is immutable: a Japanese prince can marry the one he wants – regardless of her social background – and make her a princess, but a woman of the imperial family is deprived of her rights if she dares to do so to marry a citizen. Sad reality! All the more unfair since Mako would never have been appointed empress: only men are allowed to sit on the very archaic chrysanthemum throne.
Mako and her husband ride the bus, but still masked. © ABACA
On October 26, 2021, in Tokyo, after four years of uncertainty, Mako finally married Kei Komuro, without a ceremony, without a banquet… A simple, initialed document filed in a town hall. On the same day, the Princess left the Akasaka Estate residence in the Imperial Palace complex, where she lived with her family. No tears, no shocks… Faced with the photographers capturing this historic moment, she bowed politely to her parents. Only her younger sister, Princess Kako, hugs her.
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Former Princess Mako with Kei outside a New York store on July 25. ABACA / © ABACA
In a second, Mako lost everything, even her tiaras. She even voluntarily refused the 152.5 million yen (1 million euros) that the government was legally supposed to pay her. Certainly the price of freedom. Kei’s family fortune and his own are enough to maintain their lifestyle.
Instead of staying in this Japan that ridicules her, Mako prefers to start over in the United States. Kei Komuro is hired by a law firm as a paralegal and then passes the New York bar exam. Mako, a graduate of the University of Leicester in Museum Studies, found work at the MET, where she assisted curators in designing exhibitions of Asian paintings.
Still a princess: the official photo of her 20th birthday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in 2011. AP/SIPA / © Shizuo Kambayashi
The couple settled in the heart of Manhattan, in the bustling Hell’s Kitchen district. Their building – “the pinnacle of luxury” according to the New York Post – has, among other things, a spa, a gym and a library. And her apartment – furnished – with panoramic views of the Hudson River. According to current information, Mako and Kei Komuro have moved to another apartment, but this has not been confirmed. Even far from Japan, the private life of the former Highness remains well protected through the services of the consulate in New York, which, upon his arrival, drew up a list of supermarkets and restaurants that were recommended by Japanese living in the Big Apple. He was also recommended a Japanese hairdresser who had been based in New York for fifty years. In order not to be too disoriented.
More formal, early 2019: Mako (in white) behind his grandparents, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. © Imperial Household Agency of Japan via Bestimage
If the United States never had a king – the possibility of establishing a monarchy there was mentioned at the end of the 18th century, but without success – it became the new country of asylum for sovereigns in need. In 2018, Madeleine of Sweden, youngest child of King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia, to Miami to break away from a royal family that she found difficult to fit into. Too reserved towards her older sister and future Queen Victoria and her brother Carl Philip, both of whom enjoyed incredible popularity.
The Swedish princess returned to New York on October 17 for a meeting at the UN headquarters. At the age of 24, in 2006, she worked there for Unicef and four years later met her husband during another stay there. AFP / © TT News Agency via AFP
After a romantic breakup in 2010, she had already decided to start over in New York and there she met the man who became her husband. When they married in 2013, Madeleine and Christopher O’Neill first settled in Stockholm before quickly moving to England and then Florida to provide their three children with an Anglo-Saxon culture. In March, a press release from the Swedish royal court announced that Princess Madeleine and her family would return to Stockholm before the fall and reinvest their renovated apartments in the royal stables. But this new move has just been postponed until 2024, the couple would not be able to resell their 600 square meter villa in Florida. Do they really want it?
Inset: Madeleine in the 2nd row on the right with her family around King Carl Gustaf on the occasion of his 50-year reign, in September © Clément Morin
In Denmark, Joachim, the youngest son of Queen Margrethe II, also set sail to settle on the other side of the Atlantic with his wife, Princess Marie, and their two children, Count Henrik and Countess Athene of Monpezat. After a four-year stay in Paris, where he was defense attaché at the Danish embassy, he continued his diplomatic career in Washington. Far from his brother Frederik, the heir to the throne, with whom he says he has a complicated relationship, and from his mother, who decided in September 2022 to withdraw the title of prince from her four children Nikolai Felix – born from his first marriage – Henrik and Athena. For some it was a simple castle reform, for Joachim it was a real betrayal.
Queen Margrethe II’s youngest son at the Danish embassy in Washington, where he will begin a new role as defense industry attaché in September. Action Press / Bestimage / © Action Press / Bestimage
Martha Louise of Norway, eldest daughter of King Harald V, also dreams of the United States. On August 31, 2024, she will marry Durek Verrett, a self-proclaimed American shaman who the Norwegian press was quick to label as a charlatan. The couple then plans to split their time between Oslo and California, where they want to live without worrying about what people will say.
Joachim: his official portrait with his wife Marie at Amalienborg Castle in 2019 © DR
Escape to America is not always the solution. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, also ugly ducklings, believed their exile would be a liberation. However, since they live in Montecito, a suburb of Santa Barbara, their life is anything but easy.
Harry dressed casually behind the wheel of his Range Rover as he and Meghan visited Oprah Winfrey, who lives nearby. Backgrid USA / Bestimage / © Backgrid USA / Bestimage
Harry, who wanted to put an end to his painful past, only fulfills one of his late mother’s fondest wishes. Shortly before her death, Lady Diana considered purchasing Julie Andrews’ villa in Malibu in order to go into permanent exile there. For her, the United States was this El Dorado that she would never reach.
For Harry and Meghan, a life thousands of kilometers and millions of light years away from the Buckingham balcony when the couple appeared in 2018 between (from left) Charles, Camilla, Elizabeth, William and Kate. © AGENCY