This year has been characterised by a lot of celebrity drama, both locally and abroad.
Throughout 2022, there have been numerous occasions that one may deem as “fails” as celebrities constantly shoot themselves in the foot.
In light of this, we decided to pick out five of the biggest celebrity fails of the year:
Cassper Nyovest loses to Naak Musiq
Ahead of Cassper Nyovest’s first exhibition boxing fight with producer and businessman Naak Musiq, the “Move For Me” hitmaker’s brash taunting of his opponent had almost everyone convinced that he’d emerge as the victor.
The fact that he also constantly posted videos of his workouts that indicated he was in tip top shape while Naak Musiq barely showed his preparation also had many suspecting the fight would be a walkover.
However, as it would turn out, Naak Musiq had been preparing quietly and was well equipped to outlast his more favoured opponent.
Despite Nyovest’s strong start to the fight, Naak shocked many as he came out on top in a highly publicised fight at Sun City.
Kanye West loses his billionaire status
During one of his early interviews during the infamous PR run in which he made several anti-semitic statements Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, claimed that Adidas couldn’t drop him from his massive Yeezy deal with the brand.
But, following some hugely controversial statements over the following weeks, that’s exactly what they did.
This came after luxury fashion house Balenciaga and Gap had also dropped him from various business relationships they had with him.
Following this fallout, Forbes declared that Ye was no longer part of their list of billionaires. The company stated that the Adidas deal alone had accounted for $1.5 billion of his net worth and estimated that he was now worth $400 million. Ouch.
Matthew Booth apologises to his alleged mistress, not his wife
When Sonia Booth exposed her husband, Matthew Booth, for allegedly having an affair with personal trainer Bongani Mthombeni-Moller, she came guns blazing.
Her extensive “evidence”, gathered after she hired a private investigator to follow him, left little doubt in many people’s minds that Matthew was guilty as charged.
This evidence was further bolstered by a video that emerged that appeared to show him on a date with his alleged mistress.
In the days after this scandal made headlines, instead of coming clean and apologising for his misdemeanour, Matthew took his biggest L by putting out a statement in which he called out his wife for what he described as “unfounded allegations”.
He also bizarrely apologised to Bongani Mthombeni-Moller, as well as his sponsors, for the embarrassment.
Gospel star Pulane Maphari stripped of Sama award
This year’s South African Music Awards (Samas) were marred by quite a few hiccups.
One of them emerged a few days after the event when the Recording Industry of South Africa, which is the organisation behind the Samas, announced the withdrawal of the Best Contemporary Faith Album award which had been presented to Pulane Maphari.
Despite winning the award for “Sacrificial Worship (Live)” at the awards show, Maphari was stripped of the win after she allegedly repackaged, renamed and paraded a previously released album.
“It has come to the attention of the office that Maphari repackaged, renamed and paraded an album she released in 2020 as a new body of work and submitted it for 2021 consideration with the same tracklisting,” read a statement from the organisation’s PR company.
“This is in clear violation of the rules of the Samas and equals an automatic disqualification.”
Travis Scott stunt backfires
After model Rojean Kar posted a video on her Instagram Stories that showed rapper Travis Scott on the set of a shoot she was at, social media users immediately started speculating that she was his side chick.
Scott and Kar were previously rumoured to be dating. In response to this, Travis Scott tried to nip the cheating rumours in the bud by posting that he didn’t know her.
“An uninvited person was sneaking photos on what was supposed to be a closed set while I was directing a video,” he posted. “I don’t know this person. I’ve never been with this person.”
This post backfired as Kar felt insulted and U-turned on her original statement with a lengthy rant that included her claiming the pair had been together on Valentine’s Day and several other occasions.
“Saying you don't know me and you've never once been with me when you've definitely been with me, when f****** everybody's seen you with me, when I have pictures and videos of you with me, come on. Come on, sir.”
She went on to add that the “Sicko Mode” rapper is a serial cheater. “You cheat on that b**** every single f****** night,” she said. “The whole f****** city sees it! Don’t do this.”