After years of controversy, Japanese Princess Mako will marry her school friend, Kai Komor, a commoner in Japan, this month. Mako will relinquish her royal status to consummate the marriage.

The Imperial Palace Authority said that the wedding ceremony will take place on the twenty-sixth of this month, after they were scheduled to marry in 2018, but it was postponed due to reports that the Komore family was experiencing financial difficulties. The couple are expected to move to New York, where Komore is a lawyer.

The local media intensified its coverage of the princess’s and her boyfriend’s movements. According to Kyodo News, the great media interest in Princess Mako – who is the daughter of Japanese Crown Prince Fumihito – and her friend’s family over the past years has caused her to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Her uncle’s wife, Empress Masako, also suffered from a stress-related illness after she faced severe pressure to produce a male heir to the throne. In Japan, there is a stigma attached to people with mental illness.

The couple, Princess Mako and her boyfriend, first met in 2012 at International Christian University in Tokyo. The couple were engaged in 2017, through an engagement ceremony, and they set the following year as a date for marriage, but Komuros mother faced financial problems, as reports stated that she borrowed from her ex-fiance and was unable to return the amount.

The Imperial Palace denied that it had anything to do with the postponement of the marriage, but the Crown Prince, Prince Fumihito, said it was important to resolve financial problems before the marriage could take place. It has been reported that Princess Mako will forgo an estimated $1.3 million, which is traditionally paid to a member of the royal family who is moving to a new residence.

It is also expected that she will condone the usual rituals of royal weddings, and if Princess Mako does so – giving up money and bows – she will be the first member of the royal family to do so.

According to Japanese laws, any female member of the royal family who marries a commoner loses her position, unlike the men of the royal family.