Freelance announcer Christel Takigawa appeared on the talk variety show "Otto ga neta ato ni" (TV Asahi) 1-hour special broadcast on March 29th and revealed behind-the-scenes details of her wedding press conference with her husband, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.
The couple, who had been secretly dating for about a year, had a surprise wedding in 2019. On August 7 of the same year, they appeared together before reporters at the Prime Minister's official residence to announce their marriage. At the time, she was six months pregnant, and she recalled how she had been working to keep her pregnancy a secret until the press conference. "I looked really sleepy, and I was leaning on things all the time, so I think people around me thought I was being sloppy. People around me just didn't understand..." she said, describing the struggles of keeping it a secret from her husband's secretary and her own manager.
Regarding the timing of the announcement, she revealed that it was a sudden call, saying, "We didn't decide it together. It was sudden. He (Shinjiro) took the lead in everything. Every day I didn't know when I would be called in... But I wasn't feeling well (due to the pregnancy). I got a call while I was sleeping and (Shinjiro) said, 'Let's come over now.' I asked him, 'Are you sure it's now?' and he said, 'It has to be now' (laughs). I said, 'Wait a minute, I'm not feeling well...' but he said, 'Sorry. It has to be now.'"
When asked by MCs Mikki Fujimoto and Natsuko Yokozawa if she had prepared the white dress that attracted attention when she wore it to the press conference, she replied, "I hadn't prepared anything, but I happened to have some clothes (a dress) that I wasn't wearing. So I thought white would be good for a press conference."
