• SA soccer legend Matthew Booth and his partner, Bongani Mthombeni, are expecting their first child together.
• Mthombeni has come a long way from the intense social media storm that once saw her publicly vilified over her relationship with Booth.
• The couple says their relationship strengthened through adversity, with Mthombeni previously saying they learned to navigate challenges as a team.

Former Bafana Bafana footballer Matthew Booth and his partner, Bongani Mthombeni, are expecting their first child together, a personal milestone for one of South African football’s most recognisable former defenders and his partner after several years of public scrutiny.

The couple shared the news on social media, with Mthombeni posting a picture of three pairs of sneakers – including a tiny pair for their newest family member.

“Tiny kicks are officially on the way,” she captioned the post.

Mthombeni also showed off her growing baby bump during a workout with Booth, giving followers a glimpse into their journey to parenthood and reflecting the fitness-focused lifestyle the pair have built together since leaving the weekly demands of elite competition behind.

The baby will be the couple’s first child together – and will make them a family of seven, with both Mthombeni and Booth already parents to two children from previous marriages.

Booth’s enduring profile in South African football

Booth is best known internationally for his time as a centre-back with South Africa’s men’s national team, Bafana Bafana, and his club career in the domestic game and abroad. His stature, aerial presence and leadership at the back made him a prominent figure during a period when South African football was seeking to re-establish itself on continental and global stages after readmission to international competition.

As a former national team player, Booth remains part of a small group of ex-internationals whose public lives continue to intersect with the modern game through media work, academy structures and business ventures that support the football ecosystem. In that context, major changes in his personal life inevitably draw interest well beyond South Africa’s borders.

With the South African Football Association’s role in overseeing national teams and football development across the country, former Bafana Bafana players such as Booth often occupy an informal but influential space around talent pathways, youth outreach and public perceptions of the professional game.

From social media storm to a new chapter

Mthombeni first found herself thrust into the spotlight in 2022, when Booth’s then-wife, Sonia Pule, accused the former footballer of infidelity in a series of social media posts that quickly became known as the “cheesecake scandal”.

Mthombeni and Booth denied the affair allegations at the time, and she later said she and Booth had not been in a personal relationship when the posts went viral, but were working together through their football business, Booth Africa.

The fallout nevertheless saw Mthombeni subjected to intense online abuse.

“I was labelled the most horrific things and insulted by hundreds of thousands of strangers,” she said in an interview almost two years after the scandal.

She also spoke candidly about the impact the public scrutiny had on her mental health, describing the experience as severe.

“I cannot articulate the severity of the depression, anxiety, panic, fear for our safety and humiliation that I went through,” she said.

The experience also affected her family, with Mthombeni saying her parents and siblings were subjected to online bullying.

“The malicious social-media attack was intended to ruin our livelihoods, impose shame, destroy our careers and reputations, with no thought for the ramifications on the well-being and safety of my children and me,” she said.

At the time, Mthombeni was also adamant that she had been wrongly labelled a mistress.

“I was not a mistress, but even a mistress would not deserve to be bullied like that,” she said.

Resilience, reputation and the modern football ecosystem

The abuse directed at Mthombeni during and after the scandal highlighted the risks public figures in sport and their families face in the age of always-on social platforms. For former internationals such as Booth, whose careers unfolded under the regulatory frameworks of bodies such as the South African Football Association and global authorities like FIFA, the post-retirement landscape is now shaped as much by online narratives as by on-field records.

In practical terms, reputational damage can affect opportunities in coaching, youth development, commercial partnerships and community initiatives linked to the game. The couple’s decision to continue building Booth Africa together, in spite of the backlash, is therefore not only a personal stance but one with direct implications for how they remain connected to the football industry.

The episode also underlined the gap between codes of conduct that govern behaviour within formal football structures and the largely unregulated nature of social-media pile-ons, where families, children and business partners can become collateral damage even when allegations are contested.

‘We have been through a lot together’

Despite the turmoil, Mthombeni said the experience ultimately strengthened her relationship with Booth.

The pair went public with their relationship in late 2023, after Mthombeni said they had been together since March that year.

She said they had learned to navigate difficult periods as a team.

“Our personal relationship has strengthened immensely, and we have learnt how to go through everything as a team,” she said.

She also credited her faith, exercise, her gym community, family and Booth himself with helping her get through the darkest period.

“My faith, daily exercise, gym community, unwavering family support, and getting through it all with Matthew are what got me through,” she said.

“We chose to focus on the people and things that truly matter.”

That focus appears to have continued as the couple built their life together, with their pregnancy announcement now marking a fresh phase for a blended family that already includes four children from previous marriages.

Mthombeni and Booth have also continued working together through Booth Africa, the football-focused business they founded in 2022. At the time of her interview, Mthombeni said they were enjoying their life together “unashamedly” after everything they had experienced.

“We have been through a lot together and look forward to what the future holds for our boys and us,” she said. Now, that future includes a new little member of the family.

Who is Bongani Mthombeni?

Away from her relationship with Booth, Mthombeni has built a career of her own as an engineer, businesswoman and fitness enthusiast.

She holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and has worked in the infrastructure and transport space, sectors that demand long-term planning and technical expertise.

She has also been an ambassador for Virgin Active and regularly shares fitness-related content on social media, positioning herself within a growing wave of athlete-adjacent wellness and conditioning voices that frame health as part of long-term performance, not only for professionals but also for recreational participants.

Mthombeni is already a mother to two sons, while Booth shares two children from his previous marriage. The new arrival will extend a family set-up that now spans elite sport, business and STEM fields, offering a different, more multidimensional image of life around the professional game than the one-dimensional caricatures often generated in social-media flashpoints.

Life after the final whistle

For international readers, Booth and Mthombeni’s story sits at the intersection of several trends shaping modern football: the visibility of former national-team players long after retirement; the business of post-career ventures such as academies and football consultancies; and the pressures placed on partners and families by the relentless scrutiny that now surrounds even retired athletes.

In that environment, personal milestones like the arrival of a new child become more than just private celebrations. They help define how ex-players are seen by supporters, potential employers and young players who grew up watching them, and they influence how legacy figures remain connected to national-team structures and the wider football community.

For Booth, whose playing days contributed to the story of South African football on the international stage, and for Mthombeni, who has built her own credentials in engineering, business and fitness, their expanding family now forms part of a broader narrative about resilience, second acts and the evolving lives of those who have worn their country’s colours.