In the mid-2000s, singer Akon made headlines after sitting down with Angie Martinez on her radio show to discuss his personal life and beliefs.
He confessed to practicing polygamy, meaning the individual believes in having more than one wife or husband.
“I’m a polygamist,” he told the radio host. “I can afford to have as many wives as I can afford to have. All Africans believe in it. My dad has four wives.”
However, the artist revealed that he started receiving backlash from the comment, telling AllHipHop.com, “It started affecting other people that had nothing to do with us. Because of that, (the label) said they don’t want me to promote that aspect, and I can’t talk about that too much because it’s destroying other people’s families and other things.”
He added, “Unfortunately, this is the world we live in, people do judge you by your beliefs and how you think. It’s a free country, but it’s really not free.” So, just how many wives does Akon have?
How many wives does Akon have?
While the “Smack That” singer has not officially confirmed how many wives he has, his former fiancée, model Rachel Ritfeld, was reportedly supposed to be his fourth. After walking away from the relationship, she sat down with British press, The Voice, to open up about her decision to leave before saying “I do.”
“The reality check really came when Akon told me he had his fifth child with one of his wives. For the first few months I got completely freaked out because even though I knew he had other wives, I never really thought about him being with them because his main attention was always on me — or so I thought,” she explained to the outlet.
She continued, “He does not live with his wives but the birth of his latest child made everything become real and made me realize that I would always have to share the man I love while accepting his other relationships.”
The model added that Akon was completely honest about his beliefs in having multiple wives and that his other spouses lived all over the world.
In 2013, TMZ cameras caught up with the singer at LAX and he shared more of his polygamy views. “Women aren’t built to mate with more than one party… men are,” he told cameras. “As a male, we’re natural breeders by nature and women need to take more time to understand how men are built.”
Enock Mugabi aka iWitness is a Journalist, Seasoned Writer and Music Analyst with a passion for sports.
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