Popular television host Fujita Sayuri (commonly known as Sayuri) recently gave birth to her first child, but she isn’t married to anyone, and isn’t even dating right now.
At 10:13 am on November 4, an infant boy’s cry rang out throughout the room. The boy was born 10 days before the scheduled delivery date, but even still, the boy was healthy with a birth weight of 3.2 kg.
The name Sayuri will be known to many older K-Pop fans, as she was a prominent figure in the entertainment industry, appearing on With You with Lee Sang Min (With You was similar to We Got Married), Real Men Season 2, My Little Old Boy, and hosted iKON‘s iKON Idol School Trip.
Having a baby is always something to be congratulated, but Sayuri’s personal situation is unique to the Korean Entertainment industry. She was never married, and isn’t known to be in a relationship either. Instead, she decided to accept a sperm from an unknown donor at a sperm bank, and willingly carried the baby to term.
The reason Sayuri decided to do this is because during one of her visits to her OBGYN, she was told something that would change her life. She visited the clinic due to having an irregular menstruation, but was told that her ovaries are like a 48 year old woman’s, and having a natural pregnancy would be difficult with a low chance of survival. She even had her eggs frozen earlier, in case something like this happened, but an in vitro fertilization would still have a low survival chance.
The doctor said that a natural pregnancy would be difficult. Even if I used frozen eggs, the chances of a [successful childbirth] would not be high.
It really felt like everything was falling apart before my eyes. I even though about wanting to die.
I was told that it would get worse over time, and if I missed the timing, I would never be able to have children.
— Sayuri
Sayuri had a few options, such as thinking about marriage, but didn’t want to force herself and another person into such a commitment. She didn’t want to marry someone just for a baby, and didn’t want to marry someone she didn’t love. Thus, she decided to become a mother without marriage, via the sperm donor. However in Korea, there were no facilities that would provide a sperm donor to unmarried women, which is why she had to go to Japan.
Congratulations to Sayuri and her newborn boy!
