Original Japanese article here.

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Hamasaki Ayumi: Mutual tweets of “I miss you”
17 January 2012.

On the 16th, artiste Hamasaki Ayumi annouced her decision to divorce Austrian actor Manuel Schwarz on her fanclub site “TeamAyu”.

Schwarz released a solo photobook titled “SUPER MANUEL” on 25 November 2011. In the days leading up to and following this release, hints of the two’s wavering feelings could be discerned from their tweets.

This photobook was shot by photographer Leslie Kee, who had undertaken many of Hamasaki’s projects, such as CD jacket photos and calendar photoshoots.

◆ “WE LOVE AYU”

On 23 November 2011, Kee tweeted about “SUPER MANUEL”, attaching a 「dedicate to Ayumi Hamasaki」 message to the tweet. He also added that this was “our LOVE & surprise to you” and “WE LOVE AYU”, indicating that he had done a private photoshoot with Schwarz.

Seeing this photo, Hamasaki exclaimed “My heart was gonna almost STOP! LOL” in English, expressing total shock.

◆ “I miss you” Tweets

On 27 November 2011, Hamasaki updated her own Twitter with the message “That’s a wrap on 1 of our videos!!! But it was very sad story…my hubby was on my mind all day..Miss my hubby;(((“.

To this, Schwarz tweeted the reply, “I miss you”.

From this, we can tell that in November, even though they were apart, their feelings for each other were still strong.

◆ “Preparing for my journey”

However, on the 14th of this month, Hamasaki tweeted that she was “preparing for my journey. I’m on my way to future…”, and that “How much we are apart is how far away we are, how much we are together is how close we are… Right?” These comments worried fans, who suspected that she might be hinting at a divorce.

The two met in August 2010 during the filming of “Virgin Road” PV (directed by Komuro Tetsuya) at Los Angeles. Hamasaki got to know Schwarz, who was acting as the husband, and the two started to deepen their relationship. They announced their marriage on New Year’s Day in 2011. Although the initial plan was for Hamasaki to migrate to the US, she felt a strong reluctance to leave Japan after the Tohoku Earthquake Disaster, and the marriage became a long-distance relationship. On 17 January 2012, Hamasaki announced her decision to divorce.