Acclaimed television actress and executive producer Sonia Mbele called off her secret engagement to a businessman after he got married because she did not want to be his sultana.
Sunday World can exclusively reveal that Mbele, who produced the Real Housewives of Joburg and a podcast titled Woza Nazo, was affianced to get married to the businessman in 2023.
The businessman cannot be named for legal reasons.
News that Mbele was betrothed to the businessman was revealed by the former Generations actress’s close friend, who did not want to be named for fear of compromising their friendship.
Speaking to Sunday World, the deep throat said Mbele, who divorced top
lawyer Leslie Sedibe a few years after their fairy tale wedding in Sun City in 2014, told them that she had been blissfully engaged to the mining tycoon.
The award-winning actress, said the source, told them that the businessman surprised her when he bought her an expensive silver ring costing a fortune and proposed to her. Mbele, further said our mole , told them that after several months of a romantic relationship with the businessman, she dumped him because she did not want to be his paramour.
The actress, who played Lisbeth Molapo in the series Blood & Water, alleged that the only reason she had entertained the businessman was because he was not married when she met him.
“We don’t blame her because Sonia is a successful, pretty businesswoman who does not want to be anyone’s second best.”
According to our source, Mbele, who also played Cleopatra Mokwena in the SABC1 soap opera Family Secrets, believed that she was worth more than being the businessman’s doxy.
The source also said Mbele was a woman of rectitude and probity who did not want to ruin her reputation by having an adulterous affair. By virtue of being a public figure, said the source, Mbele’s relationship would, one way or the other, have become cannon fodder for tabloids.
Mbele, further said the source, is not one of those clay-foot celebrities who work very hard to be famous and then wear brim straw hats and shades to hide their identity when they go out in public.
“She wants to be free; when she finds love, she does not want to torture herself by meeting her lover at secret places to avoid being seen because she would be messing around with stolen goods. No, that’s not her,” said the source.
Mbele hogged media headlines last week when she flaunted a red Ferrari, which is reportedly worth R5-million.
Although Sunday World was able to independently verify Mbele’s claims, the actress declined to comment.
