(Web Desk) - The controversial Ukrainian-born winner of the Miss Japan beauty pageant has given up her crown after a magazine exposed her affair with a married man.
Karolina Shiino, 26, wrote on Instagram Monday that she offered to renounce her title just two weeks after getting it, while also parting ways with her modeling agency over the scandal of her tryst with an influencer known as the “muscle doctor.”
“I’m very sorry for causing the tremendous trouble and for acting as if betraying everyone who has supported me,” Shiino said.
The Weekly Bonshun magazine reported last week that the newly crowned beauty queen had been in a relationship with a doctor and social media influencer, Takuma Maeda, who is married.
Later, she admitted that her earlier response was “not true,” and that she did know that Maeda, known as the “muscle doctor,” had a wife.
Shiino apologized for lying, saying that she was in a state of shock and fear over the exposé and panicked.
She also asked forgiveness from Maeda’s family.
Shiino was crowned the newest Miss Japan on Jan. 22, setting off a firestorm of criticism because she is Ukrainian by birth and looks Caucasian.
The Miss Japan organization confirmed Tuesday that Shiino’s renunciation of her title was accepted and the slot for the 2024 winner would remain vacant for the rest of the year.
The beauty contest said it “takes seriously our responsibility for causing the ruckus” and apologized to sponsors, judges and others involved.
It said it initially defended Shiino based on her explanation that had boyfriend had told her he was divorced and that she broke up with him when she learned the truth.