Marry Mubaiwa, the ex-wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, has spoken publicly for the first time since her arrest in late 2019, describing her eight-year marriage to the Vice President as painful and accusing him of fueling a pethidine habit that she says cost her an arm and a leg.
Speaking to journalist Simba Chikanza in an interview
reported by NewZimbabwe.com on 28 October 2026, Mubaiwa said she never attempted to kill her former husband, the charge that kept her on remand for seven years before her removal from remand last week.
What Marry Mubaiwa said about the marriage
Mubaiwa, who married Chiwenga customarily in 2011, painted a picture of a union that started in comfort and ended in ruin. She said she brought her own wealth into the relationship and never chased his fortune.
“When Chiwenga met me I had a very good life, I had my own cars. I was not after anything he had because I already had it,” she said.
She reserved her sharpest words for the drug she says destroyed her body. Pethidine is a restricted painkiller, and Mubaiwa claims both she and Chiwenga used it for years, with military nurses ordered to administer her injections.
“I lost my hand, I lost my foot, I lost because of Chiwenga, because of the pethidine that he induced in me,” she said.
“Chiwenga would inject himself with pethidine but order a military nurse to inject me with the same drug as he said he could not sleep without him knowing that I would also be asleep.”
She said her only relief from the routine came when she fell pregnant. The couple had three children together, Tendai, Christian and Michael, and Chiwenga adopted her two children from a previous marriage. Mubaiwa says she has not seen or spoken to the children in seven years.
“If I were to take those children and deny you access for seven years, how would you feel?” she asked.
How the attempted murder case collapsed
Mubaiwa was arrested in late 2019 after Chiwenga, then recovering at a South African health facility, accused her of trying to impede his medical treatment, an account also reported by