Vybz Kartel Celebrates 8th Anniversary With Turkish Fiancée
Incarcerated Dancehall artist Vybz Kartel is celebrating his 8th anniversary with beau Sidem Ozturk.
On Tuesday, the Love You Enuh singer took to Instagram to hail his Turkish fiancée. The ‘Teacha’ seems to have been keeping perfect track. “Since July 25th 2015! #8yearsstrong ❤️ @sidemozturk,” he captioned his first post.
The subsequent post sees a photo of the pair during one of her visits to him in prison. The seemingly happy couple has Vybz Kartel caressing Sidem from behind while she smiles with a closed mouth.
Sidem has a private Instagram account, but her display picture is another photo that they took together.
Last September, it was announced that Kartel popped the big question to this longtime partner.
Ozturk had 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 during that interview.
The deejay’s former common-law wife, Tanesha ‘Shorty’ Johnson, is also the mother of three of his seven children.
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.
In August 2022, Kartel indicated that he was dedicating his EP, New Religion, to Ozturk.