See Nicolas Cage & New Wife Riko Shibata on Their First Magazine Cover
The newlyweds made their magazine debut in a desert photospread.
In case you missed it, earlier this year Nicolas Cage married his fifth wife, Riko Shibata. The couple made their red carpet debut together at the premiere of Cage's film Pig in July, and now, they've marked another first. Cage and Shibata pose together on the cover of the latest issue of Flaunt magazine, as well as for a photo spread to accompany a write-up about Cage. In the interview, Cage doesn't share too much about his new marriage, but he does talk about how he, 57, and Shibata, 27, met and about the dynamic of their relationship.
Cage and Shibata's marriage is untraditional for a few reasons, including their 30-year age difference and how they got engaged. Read on to see Shibata and Cage on their first magazine cover and to learn more about their romance.
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Cage and Shibata met through mutual friends.
In the Flaunt interview, Cage shared that he met Shibata through mutual friends when he was filming this year's Prisoners of the Ghostland in Japan. They were first seen publicly together in early 2020.
Shibata and Cage embarked on a long-distance relationship when he came back to the U.S. and the COVID-19 pandemic began, but they got engaged shortly after. "I haven't seen her for six months," Cage said on his brother Marc Coppola's Q104.3 radio show in August 2020, "And we're really happy together and we're really excited to spend that time together, so I finally just said, 'Look, I wanna marry you' and we got engaged on FaceTime." Cage then sent Shibata her black diamond engagement ring in the mail. "Her favorite color is black so she wanted the black gold and the black diamond. I customized and personalized it, and I actually sent it to her FedEx."
They got married in February.
The couple got married in Las Vegas, where they now live together, in February 2021. According to Entertainment Tonight, the wedding combined Catholic and Shinto traditions, and was attended by a small group of guests, including Cage's teenage son Kal-El and his ex-wife Alice Kim. At the time, Cage released a statement about his new marriage to Entertainment Tonight: "It's true, and we are very happy."
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Cage commented on stereotypes about Asian women in the new interview.
The Flaunt article notes that the photo setups for Shibata and Cage were considered so as to not "connote a stereotype … of the demure, submissive, and ornamental Asian female."
"That's not me and Riko," Cage said, "her getting me coffee, waiting on me, or some kind of servitude. And that's not been my experience with other Asian women, abroad or here."
The couple enjoyed their unique photoshoot.
Much of the interview with Cage centers on his life in Las Vegas and how he feels about the city—including its very high temperatures. One photo features Cage trying to fry eggs on the sidewalk. "We did something kind of historic—photographing in 117-degree weather and building sandcastles," Cage said. "I don't think that's been done before. And Riko loved it!"
In addition to the photoshoot, Shibata and Cage also appear in a two-minute short film together for Flaunt. In the video, Cage talks about Las Vegas into a fan and then poses with Shibata in the desert.
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