by Alexander O. Onukwue

The focus of the entertainment world over the past twenty-four hours have been on the release of Jay-Z’s thirteenth studio album, ‘4:44’.

People are running out of superlatives with which to describe it but one thing that remains vivid in nearly every commentary you read is the acceptance of Mr Carter’s admission of guilt to cheating on his wife, Beyoncé Knowles, and the public apology he renders. The album is a ‘forgive-me’ response to Beyoncé’s nearly-spastic Lemonade of 2016; it marks the public announcement that both have made up.

Celebrity marriages are often an attention grabber. Jay-Z’s album comes just days after the Vanity Fair publishing of the loves story between All-Time Tennis great, Serena Williams, and her fiancé Alexis Ohanian. These stories consume the public attention because it is usually expected that these figures hold the examples to be imitated in the institution of marriage. The assumption is that if they can handle their issues, given the often detrimental exposure their jobs bring, then their lives will serve as lessons to hold on to the dignity and workability of marriage.

However, 2017 has witnessed the fall of one of THE most famous of Hollywood marriages, and you just wonder, with the make-up of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, what Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are individually thinking at the moment.

Could they have done more to make it work? Should they have tried to be more available for their children? Why did it have to end?

Observers say the separation of Brangelina was a shock, as much a surprise that if Beyoncé and Jay-Z had parted anytime between the last 3 years, nobody would have felt left in the dark. It is fair to believe Angelina and Brad made the efforts in secret to manage their internal crisis, but Jay-Z and Beyoncé will have pop marriage fans curious again to know if there was just the single piece of compromise which Brangelina were unwilling to cross.

Editor