Pearl Thusi: Age, Career, Baby, Is She Married?

Ask for the name of that one South African who is an actress, a model, a TV host, a radio personality, and a businesswoman, and you would have a barrel full of names. Add beauty and charm in this description and these names reduce but not so much. If you add that this person has made a name for herself in Europe and America then the list narrows to a handful. Pearl Thusi would be in anyone’s top three. Born in Kwazulu-Natal, Pearl Thusi’s career began in 2009.

Here is everything you need to know about the star of “Queen Sono”.

How old?

Pearl Thusi was born Sithembile Xola Pearl Thusi in Kwazulu-Natal in May 1988. She was born in a big family where she was the eldest of three sisters, the others being Prunella and Pamela Thusi, and four step-brothers and -sisters. She is a black woman with mixed-race somewhere in generations past and she seemed proud of it.

She was close to her mother who passed away in 2004. The death of her mother made her a stronger woman and she became a mother to her younger sisters and a “wife” to her father. But it wasn’t all rosy with her father as she claimed he abused her mother (the father passed away in 2020 and she missed him as they had resolved their differences and forgave him for the past). After her high school education (Pinetown’s Girls’ High School), she left for Johannesburg.

Pearl Thusi is 32 years old.

Pearl Thusi’s career

Pearl Thusi’s career actually started earlier than the 2009 that we mentioned above. She has always been beautiful and willowy so it was natural stepping into a career in modeling. She was said to have attended a lot of pageants in her teen. For instance, she came second-runner up in Miss SA Teen in 2003. Two years later, she won Miss Kwazulu-Natal.

Pearl became a presenter, a model, and a small-time actress and juggled all these alongside her university education (Wit University, Johannesburg). Her first job as a presenter was at SABC (South Africa Broadcasting Corporation) 3’s iCrew in 2006. She had the kind of appearance people easily get drawn to on a screen and thousands fell in love with her. According to Zalebs.com, Pearl has hosted “Lip Sync Battle Africa” on MTV, BET Africa’s “Behind the Story”, SABC 1’s “LIVE Amp”, “the Comedy Central Roast of AKA”. And others.

Read about Pearl Thusi’s best DJ Zinhle

Pearl Thusi is arguably most known as an actress and this began in 2009 when she was featured in “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”. She appeared in just one episode titled “Beauty and Integrity” of the comedic drama produced by HBO and BBC. Just one episode but it was enough. Her career as an actor was born. A couple of shows and films later, Thusi played the main role of Dayana Mampasi, an attorney and one of the CIA recruits at The Farm in season two of “Quantico”, an American thriller drama on ABC.

With the desire of Netflix to break deeper into the hearts of Africa, they began thinking of creating original content for Africa. They did more than think, they executed. One of the first series they did in Africa was “Queen Sono” about a secret service agent who kicks criminal asses while handling troubles in her personal life. They wanted an actress who could play this role so well and they settled for Pearl Thusi.

“Queen Sono” premiered in February 2020. After the six-episodic season, Netflix announced that there would be season two.

Kids, relationship – Is she married?

Pearl Thusi has a daughter she gave birth to while she was in the university and named Thandolwethu. The father of her now-teenage daughter is her then-boyfriend Walter Mokoena. Pearl adopted a second daughter named Okuhle in 2018 although she only confirmed this in 2019 saying on IG that: “Mothers are like heroes. They’re not only born. They can also become. Be made. Not only by blood, but by love. By kindness. Bravery. Compassion.”

In addition to adopting an orphan, Thusi has a charity organization where she takes care of motherless children.

Pearl has a chequered dating history. She dated Robert Marawa the famous presenter on Supersports. The rumour that the two were dating began making headlines in the blogs but the two would neither confirm nor deny. Towards the end of 2016, Thusi could not keep the relationship a secret anymore. She told her followers on Instagram that she was engaged to Marawa. She said he was very romantic about it even though he didn’t go on one knee. “But I didn’t see that,” she said.

But the two never got married. Before they could walk down the aisle, it happened – they broke up. Marawa announced the breakup on Twitter: “I confirm the rumour and speculation that our relationship with Miss Pearl Thusi ended a few months ago. We continue to be good friends though.”

Oops, but it could have been worse; they could have divorced at this same time. It is what it is.

Miss Thusi, as Marawa would say, has also been linked with TV producer Quinton Jones, NBA star Serge Ibaka, and rapper Da Les.

No, Pearl Thusi is not and was never married. There are rumours that she was married to her baby daddy Walter Mokoena. They were never married. Thusi’s closest to getting married was when she was engaged to Robert Marawa but as you are fully aware, from a few paragraph above, the engagement didn’t end up in a marriage.

Image source: News 24