Turkish popstar cites ex-wife’s alleged affair with female singer in custody battle

Cengiz Semercioğlu - ISTANBUL

Sinem Gedik (L), Mustafa Ceceli (C) and İntizar

Turkish popstar Mustafa Ceceli has cited in a court filing his ex-wife’s alleged lesbian affair with singer İntizar amid the custody battle for the couple’s 6-year-old son.

The new legal files seen by daily Hürriyet include video footage showing intimate moments of 44-year-old İntizar and Ceceli’s 31-year-old ex-wife, Sinem Gedik.

According to sources close to Ceceli, the 37-year-old popstar had initially ignored when someone he did not know claimed in a tip last year that he was being cheated on by his wife, who had an affair with İntizar.

Ceceli decided to divorce only after he was sent “video evidence of the lesbian affair out of wedlock,” the source added.

Mustafa and Sinem Gedik had married in 2008 and divorced last year amid rumors that the popstar was cheating his wife with socialite Selin İmer.

Ceceli paid 3 million Turkish Liras in compensation to his ex-wife, as well as giving her a $1.5 million-worth house in Istanbul.

More than a year after the divorce, Ceceli applied Istanbul Family Court on July 13 to request the custody of their 6-year-old son by citing Gedik’s affair with İntizar.

The alleged lesbian affair has been circulating as a rumor among celebrity reporters in the past year, but the issue was publicized with the latest legal process.

The company that has been producing İntizar’s albums said in a statement on July 14 that their contract with the singer has been cancelled.

“We have read the stories on media about İntizar with regret and surprise. Our company has no links to her in anyway starting from today,” said Polat Yağcı, the owner of Poll Production.

Sinem Gedik's attorney Eda Salman Bayraktar described Ceceli's motive as "revenge."

"We will use our right to respond to this wrongful legal case, which was initiated with a motive of revenge. We fully believe that the truth would be revealed by the judicial process," Bayraktar said in a press release on July 14.

Turkish singer İntizar, on the other hand, blasted Ceceli for "installing cameras inside the house."

"He is trying to gain back the reputation he lost. It is not ethical to attack someone's privacy. How can you install cameras inside a house? Moreover, there was a media ban on that video footage," she said in a statement, adding that she had tried to "support Gedik throughout the divorce process as she was a sad, wounded person."