HARARE – The daughter of Zimbabwe’s late former president Robert Mugabe on Tuesday filed for divorce from her husband Simbarashe Mutsahuni Chikore, according to court papers.
The papers were filed in Harare’s high court.
Bona Mugabe, 32, is the first child of the late former president with Grace Mugabe.
Bona filed for divorce from her 46-year-old husband on the grounds that the marriage had irretrievably broken down. The couple has been married for nine years.
The papers stated that the couple has “lost all love and affection for each other, and have been living apart for more than nine months”.
The couple has three children aged seven, five, and two.
In the papers, Bona is claiming custody of the children, saying: “It is in the best interests of the minor children that the plaintiff is given full custody of the children with the defendant being granted access to them every alternating weekend from Saturday between 8 am to Sunday 5 pm, agreed in advance at agreed places.”
Bona and Chikore, a pilot, were married in 2014 in a fairytale wedding at the Mugabe’s Blue Roof mansion in Harare’s upmarket suburb of Borrowdale.
The former president gave Bona and Chikore his historic Mount Pleasant house during the wedding.
The lavish affair was broadcast on live national television and was attended by African heads of state and high-level dignitaries. Acclaimed rumba artist Koffi Olomide and his band were flown in to provide entertainment.
The couple has been embroiled in several challenges. Last year, they were ordered by the high court to vacate parts of their farm in Mazowe, Mashonaland. The couple were the owners of Sigaro farm in Mazowe district, which was allocated to them in June 2017.
In 2021, Bona and Chikore were building an estimated US$39m mansion in the exclusive Umwinsidale suburb on the outskirts of Harare. They struggled to complete the house.
