The most fascinating commess has been with Varshnie Singh, estranged wife of Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo who went public in a press conference last week accusing her husband of "high-tech domestic violence".
The two announced their seperation in 2007 and have been working out a settlement since then, which seems to be part of the problem. In the meantime, Varshnie was still in an apartment in the Presidential complex... until Bharrat allegedly put her out with only the clothes on her back. Cha.
From Stabroek News:
Former First Lady Varshnie Singh yesterday accused President Bharrat Jagdeo of pursuing a vendetta against her and sidelining her children’s charity for showing up the inadequacies of the government’s work.
Singh went public yesterday, a day after she was barred from entering State House, the official residence of the President. She told reporters at the mid-morning news conference that she had no clothing apart from what she was wearing at the time.
Wow.
And things only got spicier from there, with Varshnie saying theirs was basically a loveless sham of a marriage almost from the start. She said within a week of their marriage, Jagdeo was locking her out of the bedroom.
“From then on, it was one problem after another, nothing I could do was ever right,” she explained. “Any attempts to find out what went wrong, why he stopped talking to me, why he was so mean, were met with long silences which lasted days on end and I got no answers.”She added “I left to go to the UK to complete my studies and to get away from the loveless and stressful life I found myself in. I told Bharrat that I was not happy and didn’t want to live like this, that we should go our separate ways. He did not want to do so and kept telling me it would be different and that he was sorry. It sounded fine on the phone but when we were together it all went terribly wrong.
“Later he told me he would become President and asked me to come for the swearing in. I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea. I did attend the ceremony not wanting to upset his special day. I also tried to give our relationship another chance. Still nothing improved, it just got worse”.
A few days later she came out with another bombshell, claiming their marriage, which was done according to Hindu rites, was never registered and putting it on Jagdeo, saying that the first two times they were supposed to go get it registered, he claimed to have misplaced the papers and the third time, he was already the president and told her he could not be subjected to court proceedings.
So... technically, they are not married and even though Guyana recognises the rights of common-law wives, they have less recognised rights than an officially married wife. Could this be why their settlement case has been dragging on so long?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Even curiouser is her recounting that Jagdeo was the one initially anxious for them to marry:
“…They say women drag men up the aisle − it was the other way around."
Not coincidentally, they married about a year before he assumed the presidency of Guyana. And as we have seen, Caribbean people are not overly fond of unmarried political leaders - look how both the PM of St. Lucia and the PM of Belize have nipped up the aisle in the last few months. Anyone who is not married risks the 'battyman' rumours that swirled around P.J. Patterson for years, even though the man was actually a widow. Feel Caribbean people easy?
We ent saying nutten but we just saying...
Anyhoo!
The next set of bacchanal has been in Turks and Caicos islands. Who knew those teeny little sand spits were so much action? Michael Misick is like the most dramatic political leader in years -easy! Between the Hollywood actress wife Lisa Raye and allegedly fighting with the Opposition leader (literal, physical fight) and accusations of sexual assault and rumours of affairs with BET chick Rocsi and big bassa bassa with his estranged wife and her sister and pelting of clothing - it's a full -time soap opera in TCI!
[caption id="attachment_561" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="photo credit: Essence.com"]
[/caption]In an interview with Essence.com, Lisa Raye spoke out about her marriage and break-up.
On her personal sacrifices:
I feel like I gave up too much of myself and compromised a bit too much. I felt like I wasn't involved enough. I went to the country and wanted to handle those things that I knew, like helping to increase tourism, because I know a lot of people, creating the film festival—those kinds of things.
On accusations of being a 'gold-digger'.
I am not and never grew up in the ghetto. People need to get it right. I grew up on the Southside of Chicago. What people don't realize is that my father was a multimillionaire who owned 12 hotels, motels, a steel mill, a radio station, a club, nursing home, and a law office. So I think it's safe to say I'm a little above middle class and I'm a daddy's girl. I make no apologies for loving the finer things in life or the men I choose to date.
On their bitter divorce and the drama swirling around Misick:
Honestly, I hoped our divorce could be amicable. I'm saying to him, "Let's get it over with so we can move on with our lives. It's not fair to keep me involved in all this mess that I know nothing about... I'm human and enough is enough."
Eh. From where we real islandistas stand, clearly Americans have a misconception of how much the Premier of a placewith 21 000 people can be balling. It has been driving me nuts how the black magazines and blogs in the United States have been going on about Lisa Raye being the 'First Lady' of TCI when there is NO SUCH concept in the Caribbean - as Varshine Singh discovered, poor ting. Moreover, TCI is not even an independent country - it's an apendage of Britain so how you can be the first lady of a non-nation? Give me a break. Thanks for the entertainment value Lisa - bye!
this is the quote that kills me...
ReplyDelete"ESSENCE.COM: What would you like people to know?
LISARAYE: People have no idea what I've been dealing with. I had no idea about the reputation that most Caribbean men have. I had a girlfriend who [warned] me when I said I was about to marry one. But I was thinking, No way. I met my Prince Charming. What all of this has taught me is that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. I might have been foolish on a lot of things, but I'm not foolish on the stand I'm taking now."