The spotlight is her office.
You’ll either shower her with praise or hurl insults at her. You can never be in-between with Khanyi Mbau.
After keeping the crowd at the Melrose Arch Exclusive Books in Joburg waiting for more than an hour last night for her book launch, Mbau finally showed up in a little black number and spiky red-soled stilettos to talk about her story.
She said the book, penned by City Press’s Lesley Mofokeng, came at a time when she had “lost face [sic] with South Africa”. This was when nude pictures of her surfaced and spread like wildfire on social networks.
Mofokeng says the book was a “cautionary tale” of how a person’s choices influence their life and “waking up to the mistakes of youth”.
Speaking about when her life in the public eye began at the age of 19, after her role in Muvhango, Mbau said she had thought she was invincible.
“At 19, the world was my oyster,” she said.
She said her marriage to her ex-husband, Mandla Mthembu, was “an exchange”.
“He used me as his trophy; I used him as my bank,” Mbau said.
She said with the glamour and the fame came loneliness as well as physical abuse from her ex-husband.
Mbau said she filled the void by splurging on material things - getting the flashiest cars and the longest Brazilian weaves.