Minnie Dlamini’s Whirlwind Love Life: Itumeleng Khune, ‘Becoming Mrs Jones’ & the ‘Sodi’ Businessman

Minnie Dlamini has always caught Mzansi's heart with her smile and out of this world hustle. Despite her incredible career achievements, Minnie's notorious love life always seems to be at the centre of conversations.

The presenter parted ways with longtime bae, former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune in 2014 after the sports star allegedly paid a hefty sum in lobola money for his sweetheart.

And after just 5 years of marriage, this year Minnie called it quits with baby daddy, Quinton Jones.

South Africans can't help wondering what caused each of these highly publicised splits, with one sketchy social media blogger accusing the starlet of cheating in both her relationships. And one infamous SA businessman is the main target of some of these claims.

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Let's take a closer look at Minnie's notorious love life.

Itumeleng Khune & Minnie's R1 million lobola

Minnie Dlamini has never been shy to open up about her high-profile romance with soccer player, Itumeleng Khune. At one point, the pair were even considered Mzansi's favourite celebrity couple.

The former flames first met when Khune got her numbers from a mutual friend and called to ask her out on a date. At the time, Mzansi's diamond was booked and busy, flying all over the country so the two agreed to meet at a local airport.

Sharing the intimate story, Minnie told Drum about their first date:

“He said I will fetch you from the airport‚ then we can have lunch and I will take you home. We had sushi and it became our favourite‚” she said.

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For the next three years, the couple kept South Africans entertained with snaps from adorable baecations and selfies that were maybe giving just a little too much PDA.

The breakup

But it seems their perfect romance was not meant to last and back in 2014 the lovebird announced their split. Their break-up shocked fans and even Minnie who thought she'd end up marrying the athlete:

“I was happy when it was good. It was the kind of relationship I didn’t see ending. I did see myself marrying him‚” she told the publication.

While it's unclear exactly why the couple parted ways, the actress and presenter has denied ever being engaged to Itu despite it being a widely accepted fact, The South African reports.

She's also called allegations of an alleged R1 million lobola "crazy" and smashed the claims as one of the wildest rumours she's heard about herself.

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'Un-becoming Mrs Jones'

Minnie and Quinton actually met back in 2010 at Urban Brew studios, where both of them worked at the time.

The pair shared a strong friendship, but romance was not yet on the cards for these colleagues and News24 reports they kept things strictly professional.

A few years and many failed relationships down the road, the pals decided they'd give love a shot and started dating casually before making things official while on holiday in 2016.

Surprise proposal & a hit TV show

Apparently learning her lesson from her very public split with Itu, Minnie decided she'd keep things tightly under wraps this time around.

In 2016, Minnie surprised fans with a snap of an engagement ring and the very simple caption:

"I said yes"

Although the starlet had been highly secretive at the time, many of her die-hard fans had speculated Quinton was the lucky man in her life.

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Explaining her choice to hide the relationship in a TV interview, Dlamini says she wanted them to figure out their relationship in private without all the outside "noise"

"It's my sacred space and I've been able to have a very normal life... and it allowed me to be grounded" she said.

The birth of their son

In the heart of the pandemic, Dlamini-Jones welcomed the couple's first and only child. And while the partners hoped their new baby would bring them closer, it seems the difficulties of the last 2 years were even too much for the celebrity couple to bear.

Divorce

In February 2022, the seemingly perfect couple announced their divorce in a joint statement. The friends shared that they had tried to make things work but the loss and trauma they had experienced were apparently too much to overcome together.

Even in the face of heated cheating allegations, the longtime business partners have managed to keep their cool and defend one another against some seriously confusing claims.

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Tweeps ran with a shocking rumour that Minnie had had an affair with businessman Edwin Sodi which ultimately led to her divorce, ThisaLive reports.

Still standing together, Dlamini-Jones called these claims 'baseless':

Minnie Dlamini's love life is always going to make headlines, but despite the drama Mzansi's diamond continues to live her best life for her son.

It's all love here and we only hope Minnie's next romance will be something the queen can hold onto.

Source: Briefly News