Anele Zondo has opened up about the man behind her smile.
During her appearance on the “Engineer Your Life” podcast with host Lungelo, the rapper, actress and media personality reflected on various aspects of her life, including moving to Johannesburg to study, building a career in entertainment, motherhood, finding love, and her pregnancy journey.
When the conversation turned to her relationship, the host jokingly asked: “How’s my fellow podcaster brother-in-law doing?”
The question instantly had Zondo’s face as pink as the blush on her cheeks. After taking a long sip of her drink, she finally confirmed that he was doing alright.
The conversation then shifted to the couple’s now-viral Durban July picture, which, according to Zondo, “broke the internet”.
“We posted a picture together. It was kind of saying something. Something that we’ve probably been wanting to say forever,” she said.
She explained that before making things public, they had spent time intentionally building their relationship.
“We’ve been really putting in the work, getting to know each other, doing the actual relationship work.”
Lungelo then asked how being with a man of faith had influenced her, noting that L-Tido’s faith is something many people have come to notice.
Without hesitation, Zondo said sharing the same beliefs has made a huge difference.
“If there’s any advice I can give anyone, I’d probably say align yourself with people who believe in the same things that you believe in. It just makes life so much easier,” she said.
She added that L-Tido’s faith isn’t something he only speaks about, but something that shows in the way he lives.
“You see his faith in the way he carries himself. You see his faith in his discipline, and you see his faith in the way that he treats me and the way that he treats people around him.”
Laughing as she caught herself almost saying too much, Zondo admitted there was plenty she could say about him before explaining how praying together has strengthened their relationship.
“When we’re faced with adversities, if I say to him, ‘You know what, I’m going to give it to God,’ he says, ‘Okay, 100%. What do you want us to do? Should we pray?’ It helps so much.”
The conversation became more personal when Zondo revealed that L-Tido came into her life during a period when she had completely changed the way she viewed love.
“This man… he came into my life in a moment where I felt like … love, you know … and he changed my way of thinking.”
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She said their relationship hasn’t just been about romance, but also about doing the difficult work of unpacking past experiences together.
“There’s a lot of breakdowns that we had to do where we had to question, be held accountable and be open to having those types of conversations and be open to going through certain things together.”
According to Zondo, life had taught her to become emotionally closed off, to the point where she convinced herself she didn’t need anyone. She admitted she had become comfortable existing on her own, even though she knew people weren’t meant to do life alone.
“I was so stuck in existing alone, and I was okay with existing alone. I had people in my life, but it was just like, okay, even if it’s fine.”
That, she said, is where L-Tido changed everything. “He definitely softened me.”
Zondo said many independent women often wonder how they can allow themselves to be soft while still carrying so much responsibility, but being with L-Tido gave her a different understanding of what softness really means.
“A lot of us independent women like to say, ‘How can I be soft when I still need to do this by myself?’”
“I felt like with him it wasn’t the softness of me not still doing my own thing, but it was the softness he brought to me by knowing that I’m not alone.”
She explained that having someone beside her hasn’t taken away her ambition. Instead, it has allowed her to approach life from a place of vulnerability rather than constantly feeling like she has to be strong.
“I have a vision. I need to work on the vision. But now there is an element of vulnerability I can operate from. Not hardness and strictness to ourselves when we’re hustling.”
She also shared that L-Tido saw through the walls she had built around herself.
“He definitely came in and just said, ‘Okay girl, I see who you are. I can see who you are for who you are. You’re not this hard shell that you pretend to be.’”
Looking back, Zondo said his presence in her life encouraged her to confront parts of herself she had long ignored.
“It really, really did assist. But we also had to go back. I had to go back and do the work. Why am I treating situations like this?”
The couple first sparked romance rumours after sharing a kiss during an episode of L-Tido’s podcast. While neither publicly confirmed the relationship at the time, their chemistry took over some timelines online.
