Diamond and Zari: The rise and fall of a power couple

They call it love at first sight. We call it love at first flight. That’s was what it was like for beloved showbiz power couple Diamond and Zari whose marriage is now on the rocks. Or is it?

Let’s start from the beginning.

The year was 2014. Diamond was returning home from South Africa where he had been doing his music projects when he caught the attention of Ugandan socialite Zari Hassan during his flight.

Zari asked for a selfie with him. And who could blame her? Everyone wanted a piece of the bongo flava hunk.

A photo session ensued. But unlike the session with fans, their relationship did not end there.

Kenyan music stars The Kansoul might have had the couple in mind when they sung: “Ilianza na ka-selfie...double tap!”

But I digress.

It happened that Diamond’s seatmate was the husband to Zari’s seatmate and like a good passenger , Diamond agreed to give up his seat for the man’s wife. Coincidence or fate? Don't answer just yet.

“You can come sit with me,” Zari said to him.  And who was Diamond to say no to such a request from such a beautiful woman?

“What else could I have done as a man?” Diamond posed later during an interview when speaking about his first encounter with Zari.

His English wasn’t perfect but he was determined to communicate and Zari was eager to listen. Talk of a win-win situation.

Little did Diamond and Zari know that sharing a seat for the three and a half hour journey to Dar es salaam (Zari was heading to Uganda then via Dar) would beckon the beginning of a tumultuous romance that has been a mining field for showbiz stories in East Africa and beyond.

WEMA SEPETU DUMPED

Diamond's encounter with Zari that day changed everything in the crooner’s love life.

He had just reconciled with Wema a few months before that after a nasty break up, and their relationship had been the talk of the town.

As a matter of fact, most Tanzanian blogs had started publishing stories about an anticipated looming big expensive wedding between Madam (Wema) as she is commonly referred in bongo world, to Simba one of the many aliases of the musician.

If only that flight encounter hadn’t happened.

JUST A FRIEND

Sooner than later, Diamond started posting pictures with Zari on his social post and when he was quizzed about them, he said she was just a friend they were working on a collaboration together.

Time will tell if there ever will be a collabo released. We will watch that space.

As time passed, it was clear to all that the two had fallen in love and Wema had been officially dumped by Diamond for the second time and this time for good.

It was later rumoured that Diamond was desperately in need of a baby as pressure was mounting from his mother and with Wema not being able to conceive, Zari presented a good opportunity to end his misery.

TWO BABIES IN TWO YEARS

This could explain why Diamond rushed to have not just one but two babies with Zari,  Princes Tiffah (born August 2015) and (Nylan born December 2016) in a span of two years barely few months after starting the relationship.

DIAMOND PAID TO LEAVE ZARI

With the birth of their babies and now what seemed to be a happy family, the power couple depicting a Romeo and Julliet kind of love they continued to rule the showbiz world with their romance and expensive vacations in exotic cities  from South Africa, down to the Coast of Mombasa, Zanzibar and all over the world.

The now busy Zari would accompany Diamond in almost every tour abroad and selfies were the order of the day.

Love was truly in the air.

But not everybody was happy about their newly found happiness.

It’s no secret that Zari’s ex-husband, the late Ivan Ssemwanga, hated Diamond’s guts. So did Ian’s posse.

And they never missed an opportunity to let the world know.

Ian’s bosom buddy, King Lawrence, made it his life’s mission to separate Zari and Diamond.

His ammunition? Words. He fired one accusation after the other, barely giving the couple a chance to breathe.

He once famously claimed that Diamond’s son Nylan was, in fact, not his but Ivan’s, challenging the star to subject the poor boy to a DNA test.

He wasn’t done with his split Diamond and Zari mission.

At some point, he pleaded with Diamond to dump Zari so that she could go back to her sons claiming she had neglected them ever since meeting Diamond and was spending too much time in Dar es Salaam.

When words failed to work, he resorted to money.

King Lawrence offered to pay Diamond $40,000 dollars (KSh4 Milion) to dump Zari. What King did not know was that his dream of seeing the two separated would soon come to pass.

ZARI'S CHEATING SCANDAL

Cracks started to appear in the relationship soon after when Zari was pictured in a swimming pool with an unknown man days after burying her ex-husband Ivan.

Diamond, who didn’t attend the burial, was irked with the photo and went on to post the picture on his Instagram page accompanying it with a cryptic message where he accused Zari of cheating.

“Ndio maana wakati mwingine naonaga bora tu nile na kusepa…. maana hawathaminikagi wala kuaminika hawa” he captioned.

(The reason why sometimes I prefer being a player than a committed loyal man. No matter how you care for women they take you for granted so for me wat I do is hit and run.)

HIT BACK

Minutes later, Zari hit back with a response to clarify the photo, claiming the man in question was Ivan’s cousin and the photo had been taken by the man’s wife.

“Photo credit was by his wife. He is my kids’ uncle, the late’s cousin and I happened to meet them at a spa. When you are that IT loyal gal, someone will always find fault when it’s not there just to cover and turn around stories of all the dirty they do behind you back.”

The two would later mend fences after reuniting in South Africa and pulled down the posts.

In a radio interview a few days after Diamond said that he actually thought Zari was cheating on him but she proved beyond reasonable doubt that she was loyal.

KARMA HITS BACK

Having moved on from that, rumours of Diamond impregnating model Hamisa Mobetto during the shooting of his “Salome” song where she was the video vixen continued to gain momentum as her days of delivery drew closer.

But the musician severally denied ever laying his hands on the gorgeous Mobetto even after she gave birth to the boy Abdilatifah Naseeb named after the musician’s dad.

However, behind the scenes, Diamond had agreed to support the baby and in return Hamisa was to remain silent about the affair as he would later came out to confess cheating on Zari with the model.

Hamisa did not comply with Diamond’s rules, spending most of the time giving hints of who the baby’s father was via cryptic posts on Instagram.

Shortly after this, Diamond decided to go public on radio confessing that he was indeed the baby daddy and asked for forgiveness from his team, family and Zari herself.

A few later, Diamond would fly to South Africa to try work out things with Zari , who after his confession, kept throwing barbs at the musician via her social pages where in one she says he thought he was playing her, but he played himself.

After the visit, the couple appeared to have patched things up when Zari posted several videos on Snapchat being driven to the gym with Diamond and in another the musician is seen shopping with their son Nylan.

But with the latest turn of events where Zari missed Diamond’s lavish birthday party last weekend as well as deleting his photos from her account, the two have given a clear indication of a split.

On Thursday, Diamond also gave a hint that it could be a wrap with Zari and he is ready to move on again. His post said, in part:

Mara Diamond Kamla Huyu, mara sjui naskia anatembea na Huyu, Mara Ooh sjui inasemakana juzi alikuwa na Huyu...Yani kila Ukiamka limezuka jipya, Utazani yangu ina Sukari au Nakojoa dhahabu😏.....Hebu Niacheni kidogo, niko Busy nahangaika kuipeleka Bongo fleva yetu Duniani.... Sijamkaza yoyote, na Sina Mahusiano na Yoyote anaetajwa, na Siku pia Nikimaliza Mahusiano yangu na Alie South na nikawa na Mwengine na ikifikia kuliweka wazi ntaliweka wazi Mwenyewe, Maana hakuna kitachonizuia... ndio kwanza nna miaka 28, Sijaoa na Hata nikioa Naruhusiwa niwe na wake Wanne PERIOD!!!....

(Every day it’s all about Diamond dating this lady or that lady... Can’t I  have some peace? I’m busy pushing bongo flava to the world. I’m not dating anyone neither have I slept with the alleged lady and even when I will end my relationship with the one residing in the South and move one with another, I will still make it public when the right time comes because there is nothing that can stop me from doing that. If anything, I am barely 28 and not yet married and to add on to that am allowed to marry up to four women period.)

Not one to take a jab aimed at her lying down, the feisty Zari fired back via her Snapchat:

"Ati nini yule wa wapi? Hana jina ati Mama T. Huna chako huku. Can I be left out of this drama. Naomba"

(You mean who? Doesn’t she have a name? You got nothing of yours left here. Can I be left out of this drama please?)

So, will Zari become one out of potentially four wives or will she follow up her deletion of Diamond (and his many, many photos) from her social media pages by deleting him from her life as well?

Your guess is as good as mine.

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