Maroc - dailynews.co.za - Entertainment - 13/Aug 14:41

'He chose my ex-husband's side’: Unathi Nkayi reveals fallout with Somizi Mhlongo

Unathi Nkayi, a South African singer, actress, and radio personality, recently opened up about the end of her friendship with Somizi Mhlongo on MacG’s show.Somizi, a well-known media personality, and Unathi were close friends and colleagues on SA Idols, but their relationship soured after Unathi's divorce from Thomas Msengana, to whom she was married for 13 years.According to Unathi, Somizi, who was a mutual friend of both her and Thomas, chose to side with Thomas during and after the divorce."Somizi and I are no longer friends because he chose Thomas’ side, and I don’t have any problem with him," she said.Unathi mentioned that she noticed signs of Somizi distancing himself."He stopped texting and calling me, started going on boys' holidays with Thomas, and even said weird things about me on his reality show," she explained. Her family also noticed the change and advised her to accept the situation and move on.The tension between them escalated in 2021 when Somizi was accused of sexually abusing his then-partner, Mohale Motaung, which caused a significant stir online. Around the same time, R. Kelly was convicted on multiple charges related to child sexual abuse. Unathi posted on Instagram expressing relief that R. Kelly was finally convicted, which led some people to question why she did not support Somizi."People asked me why I didn’t support Somizi. He is not my friend, and I don’t support sex offenders," she stated, claiming that Somizi's temporary suspension from Idols was due to these allegations.While Somizi was suspended from Idols, the production team opted for temporary guest judges rather than making a permanent hire."The show had to bring in guest judges every week because they didn’t want to make a permanent hire," Unathi noted.Unathi also suspects that Somizi may have influenced the decision not to renew her contract on Idols.She found out via social media that neither her contract nor Randall Abrahams' contract was renewed, and she believes Somizi’s return to the show played a role. "I saw that Somizi was coming back for the final season, and I knew he would never want to work with me after the stance I took," she said.Unathi claims that Somizi had significant influence on the show, to the extent that he made demands for her removal as a condition for his return."The show took a gamble on losing viewers by not renewing my contract to meet Somizi’s demands," she remarked, ironically adding that the show did indeed lose viewers in the final season.IOL