Ukraine-born Miss Japan 2024 gives up title after affair with married man revealed

Ukraine-born model Karolina Shiino made history last month when she was crowned the first Miss Japan pageant winner of European descent.

Competition organisers announced yesterday (Feb 5), however, that the naturalised Japanese citizen has given up her title "due to personal reasons" and that the Miss Japan 2024 title will remain vacant for the rest of the year.

This came after weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported on Jan 31 that Karolina, 26, was seeing a doctor in his 40s who is married with children.

"He is a famous doctor who publishes books and is affiliated with an entertainment agency," an insider told the magazine. "At first, they were just having meals together, but as they grew closer, she started inviting him over to her house."

The magazine also revealed that she was spotted on dates with him, holding hands.

Organisers had initially backed Karolina after she told her agency Free Wave Co. that she had not known that the man is married.

However, the agency announced on Feb 5 that Karolina had been "too scared to tell the truth" initially and that they have since discovered she had dated the man after hearing he is divorced, but continued their relationship even after finding out he is still married.

They added that she has been terminated from the agency at her own request.

Karolina, who was born in Ukraine and moved to Japan aged five after her mother married a Japanese man, took to Instagram to apologise.

"I am truly sorry for the huge trouble I have caused and for betraying those who supported me," she wrote.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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