Siya and Rachel Kolisi made a joint announcement on Instagram on Tuesday that they have decided to call time on their eight-year marriage.
They are one of South Africa’s most-loved couples: the charismatic Springbok skipper and his beautiful wife.
Siya and Rachel Kolisi graced the covers of magazines.
Rachel packed up their family and followed him around the world. As News24 said: “They appeared to embody the nation’s aspirations with their ease in embracing each other and each other’s cultures, and their success was achieved with humility and grace.”
Their marriage had become a symbol of love, diversity, and overcoming the odds in the hope of achieving excellence – which is why the announcement that they had mutually agreed to part ways, but would remain good friends, came as a shock.
Their love story, which Siya documents in Rise: Brand New Autobiography, started in 2012 when they met at a dinner party after a rugby match at Newlands stadium.
Both were from the Eastern Cape – Siya from Zwide and Rachel from Makhanda.
They didn’t hit it off immediately, but eventually became friends on Facebook where they started chatting.
“We were good for each other. We had qualities and strengths that the other didn’t have. She brought a lot of calmness to my crazy,” Siya wrote in his autobiography.
Siya proposed to Rachel on a helicopter flip around Table Mountain in a grand, romantic gesture.
He told a television interviewer that he wanted a big celebration because it was going to be his “first and last wedding”.
[Photo: Screenshot/EWN]