Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

Ken Boothe - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer and Tarrus Riley - Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

Being a celebrity is hard enough as it is. But being a celebrity who is involved in a serious relationship, or even a marriage, is even harder.

The fanfare, those who are ready to be 'taken' freely by a celebrity and those who constantly hope for the worst, could easily drive a celebrity's spouse up the wall. But how do celebrities handle the pressure and how easy or difficult is it for them to maintain it?

Boothe key to marriage

Veteran singer Ken Boothe, who says he has been married "from mi a likkle yout", advises that the key to making a marriage successful is to first of all ensure that you get married for the right reasons and always admit when you are wrong.

"Mi married for bout 12 years now, but we've been dating from she was 18 and I was 17 years old," Boothe said about his wife, Joan.

"My advice to anyone who get married is to know why yuh getting married. But nobody is perfect; there will be disagreements. One of the time we were at the airport and we were quarrelling over something about her passport and it was in a public scene, so when I went home and thought about it, I said I needed to make a public apology to her," Boothe recalled.

According to Boothe, for him as a celebrity and being married is not really much of a problem, as his wife knows him well.

"My wife know me from I poor and barefoot. Me an ar guh private school together. But in a relationship yuh mus quarrel sometimes, but true love, when you know that you love someone and someone love you, even when is me wrong you just admit it and move on," Boothe added.

Tarrus Riley, who was tight-lipped about his relationship with the mother of his child, says "yuh know me, mi nah guh get too personal, mi always a chat inna parables".

But when questioned about the difficulty of being a celebrity in a committed relationship, Tarrus said "nutt'n nuh haffi difficult. A jus di way you look at things".

"Certain things come wid the territory, like we do music an yuh music reach a lot of people so a lot of people want to get fi know yuh an be your friend," Tarrus said.

And as for splitting his time between (female) fans and his personal lady, Tarrus said "they have to try not to look at me as a star but look at the real me, jus like how yuh have 'Superman' and 'Clark Kent'. So the fans will get the 'artiste' and my personal life will get the 'personal' me".

It might seem fairly simple to these male stars, but in an earlier interview with The Sunday Gleaner some time ago, many 'Musical Wives' said their relationships had been through the rocky roads, but have now stood the test of time.

D'Angel and Beenie testing

Some, however, did not stand up to the test, as Michelle 'D'Angel' Downer, who got married to ace entertainer Beenie Man a year ago, might not be so understanding now when it comes on to dealing with a celebrity.

In that interview, D'Angel said she would not be having any heart attacks over 'groupies', as she felt safe in her relationship with 'The Doctor'.

"Well, I trust my husband entirely. He is an entertainer and I'm an entertainer, so I know how that goes, but he knows the limit, and I'm not threatened in any way," she said then.

However, the couple's marriage did not make it to the one-year mark and now the two have opted to go their separate ways.

Female artiste Ce'Cile, however, said that is why she has sought to keep her relationships out of the public eye, as break-ups can become so embarrassing.

"Neva flaunt yuh relationship in public because when it nuh work out, as a public figure, it's normally very embarrassing. And sometimes, to make it not look so bad, you have to continue to make things public and that might not work in your favour," she said.

While Ce'Cile declined to tell The Sunday Gleaner the name of her boyfriend, she admitted that they had been dating for "just over two years now and they are "thinking about having kids in about four years time. Mi nah jump up an breed fi no man an mi nuh know if it a guh work".