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Figure skaters Ando, Fernandez ready to start 'happy family'

Tokyo (AFP) - Figure skating Olympians Miki Ando of Japan and Spain's Javier Fernandez on Wednesday posted lovey-dovey messages on social media announcing they are a couple and saying they will build a "happy family".

Ando and Fernandez uploaded a selfie showing them hugging each other with messages in English, Spanish and Japanese saying: "We just had started."

Ando, 26, is a two-time world figure skating champion who retired last year after giving birth to a baby girl. She has never disclosed the identity of the baby's father.

Ando and Fernandez, 23-year-old European champion, both trained under Canadian coach Brian Orser.

In their message, which appears in English and Japanese on Ando's Instagram account and in English and Spanish on Fernandez's, the couple say: "Today is special day for us, because we want to share our feelings with everyone."

"The main points of this relationship is, love and build happy family. We just had started so we hope to have warm support from everybody. With love, Miki and Javier."

Wednesday's social media announcement is the second by a Japanese athlete this month.

Major League Baseball sensation and big-time heartthrob Yu Darvish shocked the chattering classes last week when he took to Twitter to reveal he was in a relationship with wrestling queen Seiko Yamamoto.

"We talked about this and decided to go open," he said, posting a picture of the couple hugging.

The announcement by Darvish, a Japanese-Iranian right-handed pitcher who plays for the Texas Rangers, caused a stir not only because his love life has been the subject of huge media speculation, but also because it came just two months after Yamamoto's divorce.

"Does the timing really matter?" Darvish tweeted.

The $10-million a year pitcher was married to a Japanese model, with whom he had two sons, until their divorce in 2012.