Freelance announcer Christel Takigawa appeared on the talk variety show "Otto ga neta ato ni" (TV Asahi) 1-hour special broadcast on March 29th, where she reflected on her relationship with her husband, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.
The couple had a surprise wedding in 2019. They dated for about a year before getting married, but she said they never met outside. "If we met outside, it would definitely get out..." so they consistently had "dates at home" to avoid the media. She also added with a wry smile that since her husband was living in a議員宿舎 (parliamentary residence) at the time, "the only place we could date was my house... because if we went there (to the parliamentary residence), we'd be found out immediately." She also said that neither her husband's secretary nor her own manager knew about their relationship.
When asked by MC Natsuko Yokozawa, "There must have been many places you wanted to go, right?", she recalled their secret relationship, saying, "There were so many. I wanted to introduce him to my friends too..." When asked by Miki Fujimoto, "Who fell in love with whom?", she immediately replied, "Him." As for the first place they went out together, she revealed, "It was when we went to greet my father-in-law (former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi) about our marriage."
