Vybz Kartel Engaged To Turkish Woman Sidem Ozturk; Former Wife ‘Shorty’ Is Unbothered
Vybz Kartel, the King of Dancehall who is serving a life sentence for murdering an associate, is engaged to Turkish social worker Sidem Ozturk.
The deejay’s long-time common-law wife, Tanesha ‘Shorty’ Johnson, who is also the mother of three of his seven children, popped up on Instagram last evening and appeared entirely unbothered as Ozturk opened up about her relationship with Kartel in a Fox5 New York interview.
Ozturk told journalist Lisa Evers that she and Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Azim Palmer, got engaged in the summer of 2022 during an authorized prison visit.
A curious Evers probed: “Did he actually propose to you, did he have a song to propose to you, can you share some of that with us?”
Sidem responded, “So how it happened is, we were just calling each other hubby and wifey and he was like, ‘Well we’re heading towards marriage so calling you wifey or you calling me hubby is not serious enough,’ so he was like, “You’re my fiancé, we’re gonna get married’.”
Ozturk, who studied psychology, was apparently employed in London as a social worker helping vulnerable adults and children, but left it all behind to move to Kingston, Jamaica where she could be closer to the love of her life.
“He’s smart, I love his heart, he’s got an amazing heart and he’s so giving and so loving, and I just like to call him my angel,” she said blushing. “It’s just, he’s an angel in my life and I can’t deny the way he makes me feel and how happy he makes me feel.”
“So the actually be here, in Jamaica, engaged to Addi is dream come true. I still haven’t processed it properly in my head, I’m still you know … its amazing. I don’t even know how to describe how I feel. That’s how good it feels,” she continued gushing.
As Sidem’s interview aired, many on social media pondered how ‘Shorty’ might be taking the news.
In her Instagram Stories last evening, the businesswoman posted several slides— seemingly partying and living her best life. One slide included the quote: “A wise man told me if it doesn’t affect my pocket don’t let it affect my emotions #real.”
Over the years, Kartel has made numerous public comments about his tumultuous relationship with Shorty, while Shorty, for the most part, has remained tight-lipped about their involvement. In 2018, he confirmed on Instagram that the pair were no longer together and that Shorty was not authorized to conduct business on his behalf.
Towards the end of 2019, Shorty and Kartel were seemingly back on good terms with the Worl’ Boss posting several pictures and videos of her and their sons — Jaheim ‘Likkle Vybz‘, Akheel ‘Likkle Addi‘, and Aiko ‘World Boss Jr.’ Palmer.
In 2020, Kartel released an album titled To Tanesha, which was dedicated to and co-produced by Shorty. “It’s just a dancehall artiste expressing certain emotions to his baby mom and I decided it would be a pleasant surprise to express those emotions through other black urban genres,” Kartel said in a release at the time.
Last month, Kartel indicated that he’s dedicating his upcoming EP, New Religion to Ozturk and shared new photos of her visiting him at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre in Kingston.
The EP will be released on Friday, September 30.
Ozturk, who has taken on the moniker ‘Sidy Gaza’ denoting Kartel’s Portmore Empire, revealed that she started corresponding with the Conjugal Visit deejay in 2015 but didn’t have a chance to meet him until she traveled to Jamaica in 2019.
“It does cause some difficulties, obviously I cant see him every time I want to see him or I can’t talk to him every time I want to talk to him,” she said. “But we know what we want and you know where our heart is at … its not that difficult so I’m willing to wait,” she said.
She said they do not have physical contact during her visits.
“There’s a glass between us so we don’t get to touch each other, we just see each other,” she said. “We got to like talk through some little holes that were in some little wooden bit under the glass, so its not perfect but you know we’re making the most of what we can.”
Despite their restricted courtship, Ozturk is enamored by her new fiancé.
“The man I love, he’s just like, he’s so witty it’s like even when you’re angry or you’re upset about something, he knows how to turn that around and he just can make you laugh and make you see the brighter side of things,” she said.
“Love just wins, his love is just so strong it takes over everything. To know Addi is to love Addi,” she added.
For the time being, there is no engagement ring. According to Sidem, she told Kartel she didn’t want one but hopes in the future they’ll be able to tattoo both of their names on their ring fingers.
Since Kartel’s conviction in 2014 (along with four other co-defendants), for the murder of his associate Clive “Lizard” Williams, the deejay has maintained his innocence.
His lawyer Isat Buchanan also spoke with Fox5 about their appeal to the UK’s Privy Counsel, which agreed to hear the case.
“We are asking the Privy Counsel to throw out the conviction – the men, all 5 – would have been innocent and declaring the innocence but to add that several things went wrong in that trial,” he said.
Kartel, who has been incarcerated since September 2011, is known to have seven children total with five women — 5 boys and 2 girls, who are confirmed in the tracks Man Straight (2014) and Family (2015).
In addition to Shorty’s three boys, Kartel referenced his son Shahiem, who resides in the US, in About Us (2020). He has a fifth son, named Kahieme.
The deejay’s oldest daughter is Adi’Anna ‘Girl Boss’ Palmer, shared with entrepreneur Sherika Todd.
Kartel introduced his youngest daughter, Amani, on Instagram in 2016 to clear the air that he only had two daughters amid viral claims at the time that there was a third.