Actor Mondli Makhoba was married to an Australian woman when he was 22 years, he told Dr Fundile Nyati’s Health Matters podcast on the Celebration of Women by Men episode.
The acclaimed actor opened up about relationship challenges and how women are supposed to overcome them.
Makhoba shared that men do speak out about their challenges to women, but, he said, the minute they start not sharing, a woman should ask themselves where they went wrong.
“If I open up to you as a man, I do that because I want you to know the real me,” said Makhoba, who is cast in Shaka iLembe drama series.
“I will speak about my past relationships, how I grew up, what makes me cry, and so forth.
“However, if I make a mistake in the relationship and you use what I have opened up to you about, it becomes a problem and I’ll never speak to you about anything.”
Makhoba said he was in a relationship with a woman who said he was not man enough, because of the things he could not do for her at the time.
“I am a man who cries, so when she told me how not a man I was, I went to see her in Shangai. I went to her so [that] we [can] fix our relationship.
“I was supposed to stay there for two weeks but the trip was cut to four days.”
He said on his flight back to South Africa, he was crying, which helped him heal through it all.
“I do believe that without those hurtful words that were said [to me] by that woman, they made me the man that I am today,” he shared.
“I was once married because I like family, many see [this] with the work that I do. I wanted a family and have kids in wedlock.
“I was married to an Australian woman and we have two kids today, but it did not work because of many things, but mostly our cultural differences.”
He said he is a cultural Zulu man and there are things he does not compromise on.
Makhoba said the relationship suffered and the woman cheated on him. At some point, he revealed, he ended up sharing coffee with the man his wife was sleeping with.