South African actress Asavela Mqokiyana, best known for her roles on Isibaya and Abomama, has finally spoken out about her painful divorce.
The 29-year-old star from Lamontville, Durban, opened up on the Mommy Diary Podcast with actress Pasi Koetle, where she revealed that she went through the separation while raising her six-month-old baby.
Asavela married businessman Thabo Mqokiyana in April 2022, but their union ended two years later.
She later confirmed the split on her social media, boldly writing that she is a “whole gone girl.”
The actress became emotional as she explained how her vision of a happy family life quickly fell apart.
“The plan was to stay together forever. It’s navigating that (motherhood) because it wasn’t the plan. The plan was to have a two-parent household. I didn’t have that.”
“I was trying to build it for myself and for my inner child. Now it’s stripped away like that, and that for me was so hard, and having to go through my divorce with a six-month-old baby it was a lot.”
“Just having the whole vision broken down and every day is like ‘I need to be responsible for this human being and I need to pour in this human being’ but you’re just breaking inside, you’re losing yourself, what you have built over the years and you have to rebuild with this new soul for me it was one of the hardest periods of my life,” said Asavela.
She also reflected on what she learned during her short marriage.
“I learned patience, I learned to not lead which is difficult if it’s something you have been doing in your whole life. I think a lot of people won’t speak about that transition because it’s hard and it’s not forced,” she said.
Even though she is divorced, Asavela said she still has hope for the future and believes she will have another family one day.
“I have always wanted to have a family, I love cooking, building a home, and being in natural surroundings.”
“I knew one day I will have a family, but I know God is going to give me another family.”
“I would get married seven times, I always try to find a silver-lining in everything that I do, just because I had a different experience, I can’t paint every guy that comes along bad or good, it’s just if I fall in love, I fall in love,” she said.
