Yuzuru Hanyu, two-time Olympic figure skating champion, announces his divorce

Double Olympic figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu announced his divorce from his wife due to media harassment.

Hanyu announced the marriage in August 2023.

– I married an ordinary person. We got married with the firm intention of respecting and caring for each other. We have overcome and gone through a lot together to protect each other. In such a life, my wife supported me to protect me, even when she could not leave the house for a long time.

Currently, various “media” are behaving inappropriately, insulting, harassing and granting unauthorized interviews against her and our loved ones. A lot of personal information was revealed. Even when we were at home, we became targets of surveillance, suspicious cars drove up to the house, people harassed us.

We sought to protect each other from such situations. We’ve been working on this for a long time. However, due to my inexperience, it was extremely difficult and unbearable for me to continue to defend my partner and myself in the current situation.

When I think about the future, I want my partner to be happy without any restrictions, that’s why I decided to divorce.

“I ask you to immediately stop all harassment and persecution not only against my former partner, but also against everyone associated with us and our families,” the 28-year-old figure skater wrote on a social network.

Hanyu won gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 Olympic Games, and also won gold at the World Championships twice (2014, 2017). At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the Japanese took fourth place. In July 2022, Hanyu announced his retirement.