After being married to Mbongeni Ngema for 14-years, Leleti Khumalo woke up one morning and decided to end her marriage.
In an interview on Real Talk With Anele, South African actress Leleti Khumalo took us on a journey not only about her acting career thus far but also on her past and present relationships.
In 1992, Leleti Khumalo married actor and playwriter Mbongeni Ngema, the pair met whilst filming the movie Sarafina!
However, after being together for so long, Khumalo, after considering divorce for a long time woke up one morning and decided to make the divorce to Ngema official.
"I lived my 14-years of marriage for people, I wanted to please people and I stayed. I was like, ok, it's going to work, but one day I woke up and told myself that's it."
Leleti continued to share how relieved her mother was when she told her that she was going to end the marriage.
"I remember that night I was working on my script because I was still working on Generations. I finished my work, slept, woke up and then the first person I called was my mom. I told her 'Ma, this is it, I'm finished.'
And she was the happiest woman on earth, ma never told me that she was not happy for me in that marriage, she kept it a secret because she thought she would ruin my marriage but I decided that that was it and even Bab' Ngema himself, he believed me. I was like that's it, I'm not turning back, I'm not going to reverse back I had made up my mind."
Even though their marriage did not work out, Leleti praised Ngema for his immaculate talent as a creative and considers him as one of the best creatives that South Africa has ever produced.
"That man (Bab' Mbongeni Ngema) is another person, when he creates it's like he goes to another level. He's a machine! I always say that there will be no other man like him, we still don't have a creative like him, maybe he's coming but we still don't have a man like uBab' Mbongeni. He's just another person when it comes to his creativity." Said Leleti
In 2012 the actress married her long-term partner now husband Skhuthazo Winston Khanyile. Leleti shared how they met and how he has taught her how to be loved.
"I was still going through my separation but I met him on a plane, he said a lot of things but he did mention that he was nervous to approach me and then our relationship started from there on and it has never stopped. Since the second day, I met him, I was taken, because after he approached me on the plane we met again and I was like, this is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.
He taught me how to be loved, I never knew how it was to be loved. I knew how to love someone but one thing that lacked in my life was to be loved."
Leleti and Skhuthazo have twins together, initially, they had triplets but lost the third child, prior to the twins being born, Leleti had experienced three miscarriages and has acknowledged that all the painful experiences she's had to endure in her past have prepared her for the blissful life she lives now.
Main Image Credit: Facebook/Uzalo