Akon Rumored To Be Polygamist — Details About The Singer's Lifestyle And His Four Alleged Wives
It's no secret that he follows this lifestyle.
When we think of polygamy, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, known as FLDS, provides only a specific kind of lifestyle. In the last few years, the church has faced scrutiny towards their practice of plural marriage, because these are often forced marriages, which include incest and child abuse, and alleged trafficking of underage women.
There have also been FLDS portrayals depicted in shows like Big Love, as well as reality television programs Sister Wives and Seeking Sister Wife. But for those who don’t understand this way of life, it can come as a shock when celebrities practice something similar to plural marriage.
Many celebrities are in open relationships, like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, Ethan Hawke and his wife Ryan, and Mo’Nique and Sidney Hicks. But polygamy is much different.
Still, we were all blown away when singer Akon revealed in 2013 that he was leading a polygamist lifestyle.
Who are Akon’s wives?
Brought up in a religious and cultural home, Akon is “married” to four different women, in addition to dating other women casually.
Akon has said, "The whole purpose of dating is so you can date this one, and date this one, and date this one until you find out, ‘Okay, this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. Okay, now I commit to what’s called marriage.’
You find that one woman that supplies everything that you desire in a woman, of course that will be a motivation to stick with that one woman, but I don’t know no one woman that can satisfy every man’s one need. It’s impossible. Just like there’s not one man that can satisfy a woman’s every need, but women aren’t built to breed like that or mate with more than one partner. Women aren’t built that way, men are."
He also revealed, “If America adopted that [polygamy] culture, there would be less domestic disputes. The average guy in the world has a main girl and they got a side chick. And then they got a jumpoff. At the end of the day as a male we are natural breeders by nature. We can’t even escape it if we wanted to.
Let’s say you put 1,000 guys on one corner and one bad chick walk past. You gonna see 1,000 heads go, ‘Damn.’ They don’t even know why they’re doing it. They’re natural breeders. It’s in their genes, they can’t help it.”
However, it wasn't exactly a secret that Akon is a polygamist, since he had actually revealed it himself on Angie Martinez’s radio show in 2006. He said, “I’m a polygamist. I can afford to have as many wives as I can afford to have. All Africans believe in it. My dad has four wives.”
Unfortunately for the artist, his unusual lifestyle impacted his personal life, adding, “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. 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, how many wives does the singer have?
Although there's never really been a true confirmation of how many "wives" Akon really has, he's legally married to one woman, and it’s rumored that his former fiancé, model Rachel Ritfield, was supposed to be his fourth “wife.”
However, she left their relationship in 2007, and soon revealed why she made the decision:
“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.
He does not live with his wives, but the birth of his latest child made everything become real and made me realise that I would always have to share the man I love while accepting his other relationships.
At first I was very supportive, but I began to question that if I was taking him into consideration and he was taking his family into consideration, who was taking me into consideration? The answer was ‘nobody,’ so I decided I could no longer be apart of Akon's world...
There was never any friction. Akon was honest with me about his multiple wives from the start, which never got in the way of our relationship because his wives live in various parts of the world, so I thought why fix it if it’s not broken? But now I have had a complete change of heart.
The one thing I wanted from Akon was for him to be monogamous to me, but he could not grant me my wish. I thought I could handle the idea of becoming one of his wives in the beginning but who’s to say some other woman he meets won’t capture his heart? I soon realized that he was not the man for me.”
Despite Ritfield leaving their relationship, Akon is legally married to Tomeka Thiam, with whom he has two children (he has six children altogether).
In addition to Thiam, he and another one of his rumored wives, Tricia Ana, appeared on the most recent season of Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood. Many fans of the show don’t like her, claiming her voice is annoying, her face is expressionless, and she has poor manners.
However, there are also rumors that she broke up with the singer during the show's filming and was starting to see someone else.
And in 2018, there were also rumors swirling that he may have been looking for a fifth “wife” to add to the family, as he was spotted out with another young woman.
Though individuals can only be legally married to one person at a time, that’s not stopping Akon from expanding his family and plethora of wives. To each their own.
Most recently, it has been revealed that the singer had managed to secure a $6 billion construction contract to start building a city in Senegal named — wait for it — Akon City.
The city is expected to be fully completed by the year 2030, and we're sure that it will have plenty of room in it for all four, five, or however many wives that Akon will have by then.
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in August 2019 and was updated with the latest information.