| Love Hurts...Even For A Princess |
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| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Wednesday, 16 November 2005 | |
 Just last week a royal anniversary passed unnoticed by almost all. It was 50 years since an emotional Princess Margaret shocked the world by announcing she would renounce the man many believe was the love of her life, handsome Group Captain Peter Townsend.The reason? She was mindful of the teachings of the Church (ironic when you consider the sensational Margaret revelations which are currently hitting the headlines). More significantly, though, the general consensus within the all-powerful Establishment of 1950s Britain was that the daughter of a King and sister of a Queen would, if she wished to marry a divorcee, have to renounce her right to the throne and, with it, her royal status. How times have changed! Half a century later the House of Windsor is openly embracing and promoting the concept of a divorced Prince of Wales taking the throne with his divorcee wife, a woman who has two children by another man. But while life has moved on in the West, in the East the Royal Family of Japan continue to be bound by a very different set of rules and moral standards. On Tuesday 15th November 2005 a young lady born into the oldest, most reverred monarchy in the world said goodbye to her family and Palace life and moved into a flat. The reason for this quite dramatic transformation in one woman’s fortunes? Females have no rights to the Imperial throne (a fact which is the subject of increasing debate throughout the country) and, more amazingly, a royal lady who chooses to marry does so in the knowledge that she will be forced to relinquish her life within the official Royal Court.  Her name is unknown to most outside the region but in Japan at least Princess Sayako (as she was) has earned the love and respect of the nation. This was further enhanced by her announcement in February that she would be leaving the Royal Family to marry the man she loves. At 36, Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito, is reinventing her whole life, as well as her whole way of thinking. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come that even her wedding ceremony took place at a most 'unroyal' venue: a Tokyo hotel. The man the Princess has married is 40 year-old urban planner Yoshiki Kuroda. Outwardly, at least, he is a man who epitomises stability. Somewhat stern looking, Yoshiki now has his wife’s future happiness firmly in his hands. The question has to be asked: how can one person – however strong the love between themselves and their spouse – ever compensate for the loss of such status and title?  It is a situation the Duchess of Windsor would have fully appreciated and very likely commiserated with. As Wallis herself pondered, one day her husband David – King Edward VIII - was a revered monarch, the next he was kicking his heels, trying to fill his days with only his wife and their Pug dogs as company. Indeed, questions have already been asked as to how Sayako will fill her days, having not only quit the Royal Court but also her job as a researcher so as to devote herself to her new husband and the children she may one day welcome into her family. But perhaps we should look at this love story from a different angle. Maybe it is Sayako who is the lucky one? After all, life within the cocoon of the Japanese Royal Family has all-but destroyed a young woman who seemingly had it all. Over the past two years Sayako’s sister-in-law Crown Princess Masako, a rather shy young woman who was catapulted into royal life with little or no training (remind you of anybody?), has suffered significant problems coping with her new life, despite having been a senior member of the Royal Family since her wedding on June 9th 1991.  Rumour has it the future Empress, aged almost 42, has suffered a nervous breakdown, hence her lengthy disappearance from public view. Her failure to produce a male heir – the requisite duty of any royal consort - is, in part, blamed for her poor mental and physical health. Masako is not the first woman to discover that life within the Imperial dynasty isn’t all state banquets and diamond tiaras. So naïve are the Japanese royals as to the real powers of the Press that it was reported not so many years ago that the present Empress, Michiko, had quite literally lost the ability to speak for as long as three months. Why? The media - usually so loyal and (it has to be said) condescending - had dared to criticise Her Imperial Majesty. No doubt Prince Philip would wish this had been the result when dear old Diana and ‘Fergie’ earned themselves such critical media coverage following their exploits! In all seriousness, though, this remarkable story, exaggerated or not, offers us a sense of just how revered the Japanese monarchy is. Not for this family television confessions or highly embarrassing, sexually explicit tape recordings.  The story also offers us a rare insight into how cloistered are the family members from the real world, a world in which the Empress’s favourite child is now stepping for the first time in her life. Considering the lot that has befallen her increasingly tragic sister-in-law, perhaps Princess Sayako should be grateful for having been given the chance to leave the confines of the Royal Court and break free with the man she loves? The new Mrs Kuroda is clearly intent on embracing her new role: "I want to learn various new things and I look forward to a new life as a member of the Kuroda family, while treasuring in my heart the life I have led up until now with their majesties and my family." Next time you read of the former Princess going about her new daily life, helping with the chores or paying cash in the supermarket, think on this: If you were born of Royal blood and had enjoyed a cosseted existence for the first thirty six years of YOUR life, would you willingly throw it all away for the person you love? Fifty years ago even the highly passionate Princess Margaret decided the answer to that question was a firm ‘no’. It is a decision she may have lived to regret as it’s said she never forgot the man who was, without doubt, her first true love. Margaret, as we know, lived a somewhat pitiful existence, never truly recapturing the happiness she apparently enjoyed all those years ago. Let us truly hope the gentle Sayako finds the happiness and contentment that eluded both Princess Margaret and her own sister-in-law and that she too never feels the need to ask: What price love? Comment on this article
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