When their love was put to the test...

Christopher Thomas and Princess Ruth Komuntale

What you need to know:

Short-lived love. Deeply in love today, out of love tomorrow. As the adage goes, only fools rush in. When we decide on overt shows of our love, the public expects that by this time, we have levelled the hills and filled the valleys. Of course, it is foolhardy to expect that moles will not rise up or that depressions will not appear on the levelled ground. But that is exactly what they are supposed to be - moles and depressions, and not volcanoes that blow up relationships. It is alarming, the rate at which we are being fed on a steady diet of marriages that end almost immediately they begin. At this rate, the institution of marriage is becoming a sort of prison women are tending to want to escape from at all costs. Gillian Nantume takes a look at some of popular society marriages that faced rocky times in their early stages.

Christopher Thomas and Princess Ruth Komuntale

He was the prince charming who swept the princess off her feet. Details of what he did for a living were a bit foggy, but it was love at first sight when they met in Las Vegas, and later New York.
It was the wedding of 2012, complete with live broadcasts on national TV. It was a fairytale love story; or so we thought until three months later.
Right from the beginning, speculation was rife about the status of this marriage. Was he or was he not eligible for the princess? was a question that played out in the gutter press.
Finally, she released a statement about irreconcilable challenges and hurts that refused to be forgotten. She spoke of his promiscuity, as well as physical and emotional abuse.
For her, the lesson was that one ought to have exceptional judgement of character before entering a lifelong commitment.
The Duke on his part, denied all allegations, turning to God in defence. He asked her to come back to him in repentance, at the same time revealing that he had filed for divorce on grounds of adultery. According to media reports, Duke Thomas has set up shop at Universal House in Kampala to sell his brand of cosmetics.

Pastor Edwin Musiime and Isabella Masozera

Pastor Edwin Musiime and Isabella Masozera

A TV personality, Pastor Musiime heads Hill Rock Ministries and The Kingdom Network. He met his then wife on Facebook and they were married in 2010 at Kansanga Miracle Centre. When Isabella served him divorce papers, the marriage had lasted three years. Musiime is a dapper and narcissistic man, and speculation is rife that their problems arose from her afterbirth weight. Looks do matter after all. Besides accusing him of infidelity, Isabella hinted in a social media post: “Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him”. When contacted for comment, Musiime said he made a decision to keep his family out of the public eye. He refused to say if they ever reconciled.

Hajji Fahad Lugobe and Masitullah Nassali

Hajji Fahad Lugobe and Masitullah Nassali

His business dealings are not quite out in the public, although his 24-year-old wife Masitullah is the daughter of Mutaasa Kafeero, of the Hotel Triangle and Zainab Aziza Emporiam fame.
They met at Kibuli Mosque four years ago and he proposed to her, having seen her for quite some time. There is a first wife in his life, and by the time he married Masitullah they had a child together.
The ceremony was attended by high-profile figures in the business world and was billed as the first society wedding of 2015.
So you can imagine the public’s surprise when we woke up to the news that Hajj Lugobe had walked barefoot to Kikumbi Police Post and filed a case of attempted murder against his two-week old wife.
He claimed he had warned her against keeping late hours, but she returned home late anyway and knocked a section of the perimeter wall down as she forced her way inside. Once inside, she broke his windscreens with an iron bar. The million dollar question is where the iron bar came from in quick time. Does she always travel with it in her car? Apparently, when he tried to retaliate, she jumped into her car and tried to run him over.
No scandal is complete in our city lately without mention of nude pictures, and of course, Lugobe accused his wife of sending photos of herself in Adam’s suit (or is it Eve’s), to a suspected lover.
By late last week, both families were in negotiations to reconcile the two, but there is that little matter of Case File SD REF 15/05/02 2015.

Samuel Niiwo and Judith Babirye

Samuel Niiwo and Judith Babirye

She is a gospel music sensation and he is a ‘civilian’, in celebrity terms. In 2000 when she launched her first album at Victory Church, he was part of the congregation who enjoyed her songs and promised to help her further her career. They got married in 2004 after he had fasted for seven days for God to guide him on how to live with her.
They were married for four years when she walked out of their marital home, in which she was the breadwinner. She accused him of being a philanderer, a control freak and neglecting his parental obligations.
She also pointed out physical abuse in front of their neighbours. He is said to once have beaten her up and tried to strangle her on a tour to the USA, locked her up in the house and commanded her to cut off her hair, which he claimed made her attractive to other men.
On his part, Niiwo accused those giving Babirye advice to leave him, especially some pastors, as agents of Satan keeping her out of marriage for financial benefit. He also threatened suicide in a text message, instructing her to find his body in Kanyanya, complete with precise directions to the spot.
Babirye has since moved on. When contacted, she said: “Leave Niiwo alone, it has been seven years since we split and I don’t know what concerns his life. When I get married again, I will call you”.

Vince Musisi and Josephine Karungi

Vince Musisi and Josephine Karungi

He is a music producer and she is a news anchor at NTV, and they were married in December 2012. Rumours of infidelity surfaced early in the marriage. Soon she stopped wearing her wedding ring and dropped his name. There were reports of parking lot clashes between the husband and a workmate. Karungi came out to clear the air about an alleged affair with a local music promoter. The said promoter, however, insisted that he once dated her and was grooming her to be his wife before she was snatched away.
There is talk that the Musisis have salvaged the remains of their marriage. However, efforts to confirm this with Vince were futile as he insisted that it is a “private matter between me and my wife”.

Why the early break up? > According to David Kavuma, a counsellor at Healing Talk Services, the main cause of marriage breakups is that people do not give themselves time to prepare for the marriage institution.
Many couples focus on the pomp of the wedding day, not minding about preparing for their lives together. Some do not even get premarital counselling. So after spending lots of money, reality sets in. They realise that they come from different backgrounds, were brought up differently but are now joined together for life. This is when the true colours of an individual come out.
Adequate preparation for marriage includes understanding yourself as a person, which will help you appreciate your partner and the journey you are taking together.
Although we cannot blame parents for marriage breakups since both partners are consenting adults, parents and the spiritual leaders should make an effort to encourage the couple to seek premarital counselling.
The couple should insist on it as well since at the end of the day, they will face the music alone.