If showbiz history has taught us anything, it is that a reality show often sounds the death knell for couples, whether they are dating, living together or married.
The number of divorces that follow after those invasive cameras documents the lives of newlyweds makes it hard to ignore talk of the curse.
We’ve born witness to the public splits of Chrishell Stause and Jason Oppenheim “Selling Sunset”, Khloé Kardashian and Lamar Odom from “Khloé & Lamar”, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson from “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica” and Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna from “Rob & Chyna” and Nikki Bella and John Cena from “Total Bellas”, to mention a few.
And it didn’t matter how blissfully happy they appeared on camera, how they made up after a huge row or how many couple goals they served with their lovey-dovey posts on social media, the happily ever after scenario gradually devolves into one that is marred by distance, disagreements and the dreaded divorce.
And Mzansi’s couples aren’t immune to the curse, with these celebs being a case in point.
MINNIE DLAMINI AND QUINTON JONES
Minnie was among the fine crop of SA’s “IT” girls when she joined the industry with a life-changing endorsement deal with LEGiT. Not long after she made her debut as a TV presenter by sharing the host credit on “Mzansi Insider”.
As her career soared, so too did her ambition. She bagged a few acting gigs along the way but what really got a lot of attention was her landing Quinton Jones.
Although they tied the knot in a traditional ceremony in KwaZulu-Natal on July 8, 2017, it was their fairytale white wedding on September 16 that generated the most hype as the coverage rights were sold to MultiChoice for a three-part reality show, “Becoming Mrs Jones”, which was produced by her production house, Beautiful Day Production.
I remember inviting Minnie to a podcast interview in 2019. It was a few days before her wedding anniversary and she still had that loved-up glow.
She said: “My husband and I love being outdoors and on the beach. We love spending time together and we are big feeders.
“When you come to our house, your waistline expands. I make an amazing curry. My husband is a great cook and I play sous chef.
“We are very home-based and community-based. It’s two years for us ...we are going away. It’s also his birthday in the week of our anniversary. Should be fun.”
In November 2020, she got Mzansi excited when she announced the birth of her son in a social media post with a picture of the newborn.
She wrote: “Our King has arrived, ‘Welcome Netha Makhosini Jones’.“
She was living the perfect life, or so we thought until she dropped the bombshell announcement of her marriage being over the day after Valentine’s Day.
Jaws dropped. How could it not?
SOMIZI MHLONGO AND MOHALE MOTAUNG
In 2017, Somizi fell head over heels for Mohale and he threw caution to the wind, happily flaunting his young hot lover on social media. He wasn’t afraid to turn up the PDA levels either.
Mohale basked in the newfound attention of his high-profile romance.
And it wasn’t long before they were celebrated as SA’s darling gay couple, more so after tying the knot in a traditional ceremony in September 2019. This was followed by a wedding to end all weddings at the end of January 2020.
They had SA’s crème de la crème of personalities in attendance and their fairytale romance was also filmed for a Showmax exclusive, “Somizi and Mohale: The Union”.
Despite the 22-year age gap between the couple and talk of Mohale being a gold-digger, they refused to allow anyone to cast a shadow on their happiness.
They were loved-up, serving Mzansi life goals with their travels to exotic places, and sharing it ad nauseam on social media.
Trolls were shut down by Mohale and Somizi, and their clapbacks were most entertaining.
Heck, they even went double-barrel with each other’s surnames.
When SA went into a hard lockdown due to the coronavirus in 2020, Somizi’s deluge of cooking videos with his hubby lifted the nation’s spirits and proved to be the perfect recipe for a TV show, “Dinner at Somizi’s”.
Somizi handled the culinary side of the show and Mohale took over the reins when it came to interviewing their celebrity guests.
By the end of that year, the tell-tale signs of trouble in paradise started to emerge.
Within the blink of an eye, the two were leading independent lives – and the Twitterverse’s curiosity grew as social media posts of them together vanished.
The straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak was the allegations made by Mohale that Somizi was physically violent. And it was hard to close Pandora’s Box after that as the couple headed for an acrimonious divorce.
ZODWA WABANTU AND NTOBEKO LINDA
The reality TV star included her former fiance in her Moja Love show, “Zodwa Wabantu Uncensored”.
Although it was a show about her, since Ntobeko Linda was an integral part of her life at the time, it featured him, too.
She flaunted her Ben 10 with the same wild abandon that she did with her scantily-clad, head-turning wardrobe.
Zodwa is the kind of celebrity you either love or hate.
Either way, she got the nation talking when she defied cultural norms and announced she would be paying lobola for Ntobeko Linda. This move rocked the boat within the community but Zodwa is a rebel when it comes to rules.
This was on the back of her headline-grabbing proposal to her long-time bae at Eyadini Lounge in May 2019.
Sadly, the couple didn’t make it down the aisle as the wedding was called off in July 2019, after five years of ups and downs together.
With that said, it is pretty difficult to ignore the reality show curse. The odds against couples surviving thereafter has proven to be slim to none.