Kagawa Teruyuki confirms his divorce from his wife of 21 years

Kagawa Teruyuki and his wife of 21 years have gone their separate ways as reported on 14 December. The couple married in December 1995 and have a son and a daughter. Their son Masaaki who is in the first year of junior high now, made his debut in the kabuki scene with his father in 2011 and performs under the stage name of Ichikawa Dango. However, despite Kagawa's view that he allowed his son to enter the kabuki world due to the latter's wishes, his wife did not seem to accept the decision well. Especially with a fair bit of controversy speculating that Kagawa had made use of his son's debut to his benefit, it was said to have created a lot of stress for his wife as a result.

According to reports, Kagawa and his ex-wife who used to be a cabin attendant, started divorce discussions about 2 years ago. It was said that Kagawa had not taken a break at all for the past six years due to his busy schedule of filming dramas, movies and Kabuki performances which led to growing differences between the two of them. For Kagawa, as his parents had also divorced when he was a child, he was reluctant to do the same as he didn't want his children to go through what he went through in the past. To protect his children from being affected by media reports on his divorce, details of what led to their separation and the process were kept under wraps but the advertising agencies and sponsors for Kagawa's CMs were said to have been informed about this prior to the press getting wind of this matter.

Nonetheless, news of the couple's shaky relationship were first reported two years ago in the tabloid "Flash" which claimed that Kagawa had approached his children's schools to ask the teachers if the children were having issues due to problems at home. It was also said then that Kagawa hardly returned home during the past few years due to constant drinking sessions with his friends and senior kabuki actors which he hardly rejected.

Kagawa will be taking on the stage name of Sandaime Ichikawa Udanji in January next year for the kabuki performances to be held at Shinbashi Enbujo and is currently in the midst of performances at the Kabukiza in Tokyo.

Sources: Sanspo / Yomiuri Hochi / Real Live