Has princess Kiko been badly treated?

[ChiaraC]

Jia, the first thing I have to say on this subject is that I have no “hard” proof for what I am saying. There is only a whole lot of small incidents and expressions of faces that I interpret, and, I must say that I am personally sure that I am right – also because I am famous among my friends for being able to explain the motives and foretell the actions of people that I have never personally met, that have only been described to me by others. And although all the information I get about these people comes from my friends I sometimes understand them better than my friends who have met them in person a lot of times. I just know by experience that this is often the case and have come to trust my impressions. But, of course, I cannot and would not expect you to just believe it because I am saying it. I might be wrong, and I am just sharing my guesswork and have no farther pretensions.

You have probably read the first post I have written concerning this question as you mention the Thailand affair. (Bye the bye: I generally agree that a single affair is not necessarily the ruin of every happy marriage.) I will not repeat what I have written there. (For everybody who is interested see here: http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=802061&postcount=13)

But I will add here a few things more that recently have strengthened my conviction of the Akishino-marriage being presently a very unhappy one:

1. We probably all remember the broad smile Kiko showed the world when she left the hospital with newly born Hisahito, and also shortly afterwards, on occasion of his being presented at the shrine. At that time, it was also remarkable how she was trying to meet her husband´s look and share the smiling joy with him. (But already then: I did not notice an instant of her husband returning her look. He proudly watched his son but never his wife.)
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Now, two years later, this brilliant smile, the trying to contact her husband is gone. Her smile is rather frozen and she interacts nearly exclusively with her son on whom she remains concentrated. But there is never a proud look being exchanged between the parents that could be compared (for example) with the look between Naruhito and Masako, accompanying Aiko on her first day in school. http://www.daylife.com/photo/0bEO6C07lO6ds/aiko_%2B__primary_school

If I watch, for example, the film from the 3rd of May on this page http://www.dai2ntv.jp/common/misc/kochi2/nikoniko/index.html (The icon is little Hisahito with a bit of a white dog.) I receive the impression that the only fairly happy person in it is (fortunately) the innocent little one. Kiko is forcing a smile, Akishino looks rather bored and the daughters downright depressed. Just my impression, of course, and, of course, they are trying to make it look happy but I just do not believe it.

My interpretation is the following: Kiko had hoped that she would get her husband´s attention and admiration back if she gave him what probably was (and is) his highest ambition: to stop being only the little brother and the “second one”. More than that: she did not only hope to get it but was sure of it. The only thing she feared was that there might still go something wrong with the pregnancy. And when everything did go well she was sure she had finally made it and won her husband´s love back: thence her happy smile. Now, now, now, very soon the long expected miracle would manifest… But after a time she had to find out what everybody with a bit of life experience knows (at least when another is concerned…): having another child cannot save a marriage, and if this child is heir to the world´s most ancient throne or not makes no difference whatsoever in the matter.

And now, it seems to me, Kiko has given up and decided to put up with what she has, her position, in short: the mere APPEARANCE of having everything desirable. But I do not think that she will ever be able to forgive her husband, and I am afraid that this resentment will, in the long run, poison her once so soft and gentle soul.