‘I was served on WhatsApp’ – Marya Prude narrates messy divorce with Willis Raburu
Marya Prude has opened up about her divorce from the former TV host Willis Raburu, describing the process that was public as messy and emotionally draining.
In a candid conversation with the Iko Nini podcast in an episode aired on Friday, January 9, 2026, Marya stated that the divorce happened during the COVID-19 period, a time when many people were glued to social media and constantly looking for trending stories.
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She said this made an already difficult situation even worse, especially since it came shortly after the loss of their child.
“It was messy because it happened during COVID time; people were on social media looking for something to entertain them, so they went in to find out how did this happened, and then it was after the loss of our kid,” Marya stated.
Public scrutiny
Marya went on to say that the public scrutiny was overwhelming, saying she could feel people staring and judging her wherever she went. Even her parents were not spared, as they received comments from people claiming they had seen or heard things about her.
“It was so messy ata ukienda anywhere unaona tu watu wanakuangalia,’ ooh kaliachwa‘ even to my parents, they got comments like ‘Mary niliona mambo yake‘ and I felt bad for them being dragged in the whole thing,” she added.
In addition, Marya explained that they first separated and later tried to fix their marriage through therapy and conversations, but nothing worked.
She said that was the point, they both realised the relationship could not be saved.
“Ile point tulijua hapa haiwezi ilikuwa when we did the separation, and after separation, we tried therapy and even talking, but it did not work,” Marya explained.
Divorce papers
The social media personality further revealed that she was shocked when she was served with divorce papers at a time when she believed they were still trying to work things out.
Additionally, she added that although they were already separated, the move caught her off guard. However, upon receiving the documents, Marya said she immediately accepted the situation.
“I was served divorce papers when I was thinking we were working on it,nilitumiwa kwa WhatsApp, but we were separated at that time,” she revealed.
“Kupata hizo documents nikasema it is okay, that was my immediate attitude mimi sikuwa ati ooh we get parents, we get pastors mimi nilikuwa am done.”
In a turn of events, she says during her conversation with Willis, she found out that he had not fully reached that conclusion by the time he sent the papers.
“Later tukiongea nikamwambia I thought hii story imefika hiyo point ya irreconcilable, but ata yeye hakuwa amefika hapo by the time ananitumia hizo paper,” she added.
Marya also disclosed that the divorce process became even more complicated after she filed a separate case, making her the petitioner, because she did not agree with the grounds that had been given for the divorce, adding that the whole process took like a year.
“Yetu ilikuwa messy because nilifile yengine yenye mimi nilikuwa petitioner because I did not agree with his grounds for divorce; I had my own grounds. For me, the grounds are very important; you should not agree because you want a divorce,” she added.
“Divorce can take a very long time because of the issues of child custody and properties, but yetu haikuwa na hizo issues za properties and children, but it still took long time, like more than a year.”
