TOKYO (TR) – Actress-singer Yuki Saito, 50, on Thursday denied a report in a weekly magazine that says she is engaged in an extra-marital affair with a married family doctor, describing her alleged partner as more of a “background mainstay,” reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 4).
According to the August 10 issue of Shukan Bunshun, which hit newsstands on Thursday, Saito is in a relationship with a physician living in Yokohama. The article shows Saito, who is married with three children, and the man, aged in his 50s, in secretive meetings at his residence and out in public together, including at a movie theater.
In one photograph, the couple is shown holding hands near a theater. “After descending the stairs at the theater, my legs became unsteady,” Saito said before an assembled press corps. “[He] supported me at that time. He had pulled out his hand in a gentle gesture, and I grabbed it like a spoiled child.”
Rather than an affair, Saito described her relationship with the doctor as more of one existing out of “courtesy.” “He’s my shadow mainstay,” she said. “In watching me perform on the stage and television, he gives me advice.”
When contacted by the magazine, the man in question also denied an affair between himself and Saito, saying that their relationship was professional.
Devout Mormon
In 1985, Saito released her debut album “Axia.” Her television debut came that same year in the series “Sukeban Deka.”
Going back to the early 1990s, the Bunshun report is the fourth detailing an affair involving Saito and a married man. With her reportedly being a devout Mormon, a religion prohibiting adultery, a reporter asked if she “had crossed the line?” The question was not answered due to time limitations.
