It really was. She gained a bunch of weight and apologized before every frigging concert of Kingdom Tour and on TV. She lost commercial contracts and so on. Even avex didn't really give her a rest.
A friend of mine (well, hello Gubsi, I guess it was you
) said once, that you can feel on her Trick album, how conflicted she still was. It was the first album she released after it. I've never connected it before, but the theme of trick and illusion was really revealed in a different light in connection to the 'scandal'.
On another topic...where are the tour goods?
They never were this late and there's no message about it either.
Tour starts this coming Friday.
I am excited to see the tracklist and hopefully some report about it. As she indeed follows that reversed theme further with AND Tour being for her FC fans and being close and DNA Tour to be better enjoyed sitting farer away from her.