Before the storm: Diamond Platinumz and Zari Hassan. COURTESY PHOTO
As the rest of the world was celebrating love, exchanging gifts, flowers and lips, a heartbroken Zari was typing a post announcing her break up with Tanzanian Bongo flava sweetheart Diamond Platinumz.
“Understand that this is very difficult for me to do. There have been multiple rumors some with evidence floating around in ALL SORTS of media in regards to Diamond’s constant cheating and sadly I have decided to end my relationship with Diamond, as my RESPECT, INTEGRITY, DIGNITY & WELL BEING cannot be compromised. I will continue to build as a mogul, I will inspire the world of women to become boss ladies too. I will teach my four sons to always respect women, and teach my daughter what self-respect means,” Zari Posted and followed it with a picture of a black rose, normally given to the dead or a sign of dead love.
Before the announcement, the couple had made millions of followers green with envy for their seemingly perfect relationship. A wealthy and popular singer had fallen in love with an almost equally rich Ugandan socialite Zari Hassan, deemed to be one of the best-looking women in Uganda. Their relationship looked to be a match made in social media heaven as the lovebirds flooded timelines with their nicely-shot pictures flashing expensive cars, clothes and watches. The average-looking Diamond Platinumz quickly became one of East Africa’s most desired man with his hottest accessory, Zari – a mother of three at the time – by his side.
Soon the couple was popping babies and that is when the affair begun going downhill. Diamond, a seasoned player who seemed to have shelved his playing boots when he met Zari, was back in the pitch and even scored a goal with Hamisa Mobetto, a video vixen who had appeared in his Salome music video, when he bore a son with her.
Mobetto was the kind of the kind of mistress not willing to be hidden in the closet and was soon sharing pictures of her with Diamond in Zari’s bed and office. Although Diamond initially refuted claims of infidelity with the model, he was forced to accept paternity of the baby when Mobetto pulled out more incriminating evidence.
The scandal hurt the ‘Zarimond’ relationship to the extent that the betrayed Zari pulled down all pictures she had taken with her philandering bae. Speculation was rife that the relationship had met its end though they never confirmed the rumors. During the annual KCCA carnival, Diamond who was the event’s main performer came without Zari even though Uganda is her home country. That alone was a statement on its own. Mobetto has won, many thought!
However after a brief period of no lovey dovey posts, Zari was back at it again, showing off her boo on trips to London and on Baby Nilan’s birthday party.
Thanks to social media, today it is easy to follow a couple’s love life and Zari’s page was one of the most frequented pages as her fans wanted to keep up with Zarimond. But Zari abruptly stopped posting about her lover. Instead she was gushing about her children which was quite unusual for the socialite. Instead of posing with Diamond, she was posing with her teenager sons (whom she bore with the late Don Ivan Semwanga), whom she had given the backseat since she met Diamond.
In fact the last picture of her and Diamond she shared was on January 1. The picture, however, was unlike her usual cozy ones. In the picture, Zari and Diamond stood leaning against a wall and even though they were smiling at each other, the space between them had fans questioning why there was so much distance between them this time. Was this a sign of trouble in paradise?
READ: Are Zari and Diamond playing games?
Later Zari was posting cryptic messages that pointed to a potential break up. On January 13 she posted “Team kuzinonya bwakededa (It’s already morning. Team Find Money)… Hustle like you got no friends and grind like nobody got your back… because nobody really got your back BUT YOU. GOD bless those hustling to improve their lives. Amen!” Fans wondered why she would post something like this when Diamond had her back.
On January 22 she wrote, “Don’t push your dreams into the future because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
On February 7, while inviting her fans to a Valentine’s Day party in London, her post was hijacked by her followers who demanded to know why she was no longer posting about Diamond Platinumz.
A one Birungi Sheilla commented “Enjoy but since diamond left u only slay OK enjoy,”. The ‘Boss lady’ did not respond to any of this provocation because it was not the right time to do so.
Her Valentine’s Day break up announcement therefore came at a time when it was least expected since she had not commented on the topic in a long while.
But skeptics say that the couple had broken up long before the announcement but were only keeping it under wraps since they had a number of endorsement deals they were handling together.
They have multi millions deals with corporate companies that will come to an end once they separate,” a source in Diamond’s camp said.
It is said that the deal extends to their two children, Tifah and Nilan.
Another school of thought, especially among Bongo musicians, is that Diamond is set to release a new song and the break up is a publicity stunt.
It is not clear what exactly pushed Zari to make the announcement at the moment.
