Yūko Takeuchi

was a Japanese actress. She is known for her roles in television series Asuka (1999), Pride (2004), FlashForward (2009), and Miss Sherlock (2018) as well as films such as Ring (1998), Yomigaeri (2003), and Dog in a Sidecar (2007). Life and career Takeuchi was born on 1 April 1980 in Urawa, Saitama, Japan. She was "discovered" during spring break in Harajuku after junior high school. Takeuchi was married to Shidō Nakamura II (who had co-starred with Takeuchi in the film Be With You) from 10 May 2005 until their divorce on 29 February 2008. She had a son with Nakamura who was born in November 2005. Prior to the couple's divorce, Nakamura had apologized for a drunk driving incident where he was with actress Aya Okamoto and later seen with actress Saki Takaoka. After the drunk driving incident, Takeuchi reportedly moved to live in her management office shortly before filing for divorce in October 2006. Takeuchi married actor Taiki Nakabayashi on 27 February 2019. Her son, in junior high school at the time was reported to have actively encouraged her second marriage. In November 2019, she announced she was pregnant and gave birth to her second son in January 2020. Takeuchi was known for her earlier roles, starring in Japanese television dramas such as Mukodono (My Husband), Lunch no Joō (The Queen of Lunch), Egao No Hōsoku, and Pride, as well as NHK's Asadora television series Asuka. In the romantic comedies Mukodono, she and Nagase Tomoya played newlyweds and in Lunch no Joō, she played a girl with a mysterious past who loves her lunch. In drama Egao no Hōsoku, her character experiences meeting new people while supporting a manga writer and in Pride, her character is the love interest of a hockey player portrayed by Takuya Kimura.