On September 27 last year, Joelle Kayembe ditched her trademark bathing costume for a beautiful blue traditional outfit for a customary marriage to her beau, businessman Bongani Mbindwane.
"Bo" slipped a ring on her finger in front of family and friends who had gathered for the ceremony at the Sandton, Johannesburg, home of her family.
Just over a year later, the fairytale has been shattered by claims of physical abuse, "murder", sabotage and a pink Salvatore Ferragamo wedding gown torn in shreds.
She has filed for divorce, but Mbindwane says there never was a marriage.
He has accused her of having "killed" his unborn child, which has left him devastated and in "mourning".
Matters came to a head last month when the 35-year-old Cape Town businessman discovered the 26-year-old swimsuit model had terminated a pregnancy.
He allegedly slapped her and called her a "murderer" who would "rot in jail".
The next day Kayembe went to the High Court in Johannesburg for access to their home in upmarket Sandhurst after Mbindwane, CEO of mining company Platfields Ltd, had changed the locks.
He also accused her of splurging on a credit card which was linked to one of his accounts, but she said he could "quite literally purchase a jumbo jet" on the card while she had only a R4000 withdrawal limit and a further R18000 for purchases.
She wanted access to an Audi Q5 and several other items, including her modelling portfolio and passport, which she needed to travel to the UK the following day.
The order was granted in Mbindwane's absence, but on Wednesday he hit back with an urgent application that is scheduled to return to court later this month.
Mbindwane said in an SMS to the Sunday Times: "The matter is in court and let's allow the process to go ahead. In the meantime, I would like space to mourn the untimely ending of my unborn child's life."
The fight has been nasty: bruised cheeks, her designer shoes slashed and his Audi R8 damaged after Kayembe bashed a window in a bid to open the boot of the car to retrieve her belongings.
What was less obvious was the emotional trauma she and her close-knit family have had to endure, the acclaimed model told the Sunday Times.
She said having the battle waged in public had been embarrassing, especially claims that she was doing it for the money.
Kayembe, daughter of a wealthy Congolese businessman, met Mbindwane about five years ago. The relationship was "on and off" for several years until their engagement last year.
"What really attracted me to him was that he loved the privacy I cherished so much," she said. "For the first time, I felt that he looked beyond that superficial model that everybody tried to cast me as."
Kayembe said Mbindwane's proposal was romantic: he lured her to a property in Sandhurst that she "loved" on the pretext of wanting to take photographs. Then he surprised her with champagne, a proposal and news that he had bought the home for them.
"For a long time I felt I was the luckiest girl in the world."
The customary marriage that followed was important to Kayembe, who is originally from the Congo, because, as the eldest of her eight siblings, she felt she had a duty to conclude the traditional affair before moving in with him.
On May 18 2008 Mbindwane paid an initial R20000 in lobolo to her parents. On the day of the traditional ceremony, he paid another $1000.
As custom required, her family took her to her new home, where she was officially handed over to her "new husband".
Their civil ceremony was scheduled for September this year. After a brief split in February amid claims of infidelity, the two reunited in May and she fell pregnant soon after.
The civil ceremony was postponed after they had learned Kayembe was pregnant, but also because they were having problems again.
She said she had changed her image for him, but he was unhappy that she had male friends.
Also Mbindwane picked out "appropriate" clothing for her, and Kayembe, initially smitten, did not object.
"I had to re-arrange my image completely because I was now married ... If he had said to me, 'You now need to be blonde,' I would have painted my hair blonde."
She even gave up modelling jobs when he suggested that was not a good image for his wife.
Then a friend told her that she suspected Mbindwane had been at strip clubs, and she found a brothel receipt in his sock drawer.
Mbindwane, in an e-mail attached to the court papers, told her: "I do not and have never had sex with whores and prostitutes ... I occasionally visited Mavericks, The Grand, etc. These are not sex rooms, but strip bars and revue bars. I'll do that in future again.
"The girls there do nothing different to what you do in the various magazines you have posed semi-naked and sexually provocative on."
In the early hours of October 9, Kayembe claims she caught him in a hotel room with another woman. She said he failed to apologise and that's when she knew it was over.
"It's like when you have a dog and it's a cute puppy. I was a gorgeous wife to drag around, and suddenly the puppy pees on the floor and you don't like how it's peeing and you kick it out."
Although Kayembe says she wanted a peaceful end to the relationship, the two are facing an ugly legal battle.
Mbindwane in court papers questioned her motives for the "divorce". She claims the notion that she is after his money is "ridiculous".
"My father could have given me anything I wanted ... I had a life before I met him, and that's what I'm fighting for."
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