Kayoko Miyamoto, former wife of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, said in a magazine interview published this week she wants to be a cheerleader for her ex-husband, explaining, "I have nothing to lose."

In the interview with Shukan (Weekly) Asahi, Miyamoto said Koizumi's ascent to president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and prime minister "gave many people wonderful courage."

"I myself will do anything I can to help him," she said. "I want to be part of the cheerleading group. I have nothing to lose."

Miyamoto tearfully refused to disclose the reason for her divorce. "It's really sad that the children did not become a bond" between her and Koizumi when they separated in 1982, she said.

The couple have two sons and she was six months pregnant when they divorced. Koizumi raised the two boys and she brought up the third child, who she says graduated from college this spring.

She said in the interview she has not met her two other sons since the divorce. "I believe I will be allowed to meet them," she added.

Miyamoto, a granddaughter of the former chairman of a major pharmaceutical company, was a 21-year-old student at Aoyama Gakuin University when she tied the knot in 1978 with Koizumi, then 36.

Koizumi has vowed never to remarry, saying divorce consumes more than 10 times the energy needed for a marriage.