Their wedding day was a dream. Baby Cele and now ex-husband Thabo Maloka got married in 2017 but celebrated their union with a traditional wedding ceremony in her home of Umlazi, Durban in 2019. The couple first hosted umembeso, which is a traditional isiZulu ceremony that forms part of the lobola negotiations. The groom gifts he bride's parents and family with various items like blankets before the wedding celebration. After completing this rite of passage, the couple followed with a white wedding that was graced by stars Khaya Dladla, Nompilo Maphumulo and Dawn Thandeka King.
GOING THEIR SEPARATE WAYS
In a recent interview with Lungelo KM on the YouTube channel, Engineer Your Life, the mother of two revealed that she and her businessman husband have long split, and she has long healed. She spoke candidly about moving on after another divorce, her calling to be a sangoma, polygamy, acting, and couch casting. "For the first time, I will be speaking about something that people don't know,' she says. "I'm not married anymore. I got divorced two years ago.' Soeaking about how her sangoma calling contributed to her divorce, Baby says, "I clap my hands for anyone married to a person who has a relationship with someone with a spiritual calling. They are either brave or they were chosen by the ancestors.' She went on to detail the challenges of being in a relationship as a sangoma, seeing and feeling things in dreams.
TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK
Having been married and divorced a few times,Baby does not disclose the number of divorces she has had in the past. "This is not my first divorce, but that's beside the point,' she jokes. "I thought this was the one; we laughed together, we liked the same things, and he loved people like me. But what could go wrong? I didn't see myself getting divorced. I would even pray about it. Even if something hurt me, I would pray. But it happened anyway.' Baby says as a traditional healer, the future is in God's hands and her ancestors. "Ever since I learned that and embraced it, nothing can hurt me.When I look back, everything that happened was meant to be.'