‘I died inside': Dawn Thandeka King on infidelity and heartbreak

The Citizen

24-07-2025

Dawn was the latest guest on the Showmax talk show 'Untied'.
Award-winning actress Dawn Thandeka King has opened up about the pain of betrayal and the strength it took to rebuild her life following her divorce.
The Shaka iLembe star was the latest guest on the Showmax talk show Untied, which explores the raw realities of divorce through the voices of well-known South African women.
Dawn candidly discussed the alleged infidelity that shook her marriage and how it left her deeply wounded.
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Dawn Thandeka King on fame, distance and growing apart
She said the challenges began when she moved to Durban for her first major television role on Uzalo, leaving her husband and five children behind.
'The distance was the first challenge. And obviously now I'm in this industry, and I'm doing something that I truly love. It's going to show. I'm going to start looking like a happy woman. Not that I wasn't happy before, but something is happening to me that I never actually thought would happen.
'I think we, one, grew apart. And in our growing apart, I had found myself. Perhaps he hadn't found himself… The more I became famous, the more there was a rift — it just pushed us further and further apart,' she said.
Dawn said what made it even more painful was the introduction of someone else into the relationship.
'I suppose this is the person he was speaking to about his troubles… He wasn't saying that to me. He was saying it to someone else. I think that killed me. I felt abandoned.
'It went back to the little girl who was not loved, who was looking to be loved. I died inside, and I thought this was it. For it to hurt me this deeply — that I can't see you as you anymore because you're seeing someone else, and now you can't see me as me anymore,' she added.
Dawn also spoke about the courage it took to walk away from the relationship — a decision that, she said, marked the beginning of a new chapter filled with personal growth, spiritual discovery, and professional transformation.
She said that her spiritual calling and connection to her ancestors guided her through some of her darkest moments.
'Because I then found an agency, and then my agency found me a job — and that was my first acting gig in 2012. I often wonder whether that was the reason I went through this journey that opened that door,' she said.
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