Adekunle Gold’s dating history is, refreshingly, a one-name story. The Afrobeats singer and former YBNL graphic designer has built one of the genre’s most-loved marriages with fellow musician Simi, and almost the entire public timeline of his romantic life is tied to her. There are no messy headlines, no parade of partners, no paternity scandals. There is one quiet relationship that started as a friendship inside a Lagos music studio, slipped into something deeper while the rest of the industry watched their duets and missed the obvious, and ended up as a private 2019 wedding and a daughter named Adejare. For a couple who sings about love for a living, Adekunle and Simi keep theirs unusually offline.
| Adekunle Gold’s Relationship Timeline | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Partner | Status | Type |
| 2019 – Present | Simi (Simisola Ogunleye) | Married | Confirmed |
| 2015 – 2018 | Simi | Friends, then dating | Confirmed (publicly revealed 2019) |
| Pre-2015 | No publicly known partners | N/A | N/A |
The Simi Story: How Adekunle Gold and Simi Met
Before Adekunle Gold was Adekunle Gold, he was Adekunle Kosoko, the graphic designer behind some of the most recognisable cover art on YBNL Nation, Olamide’s record label. Simi, then a gospel-trained singer trying to cross over into Afro-pop, was orbiting the same Lagos music circles. The two were introduced around 2013 through the industry’s small, overlapping rosters and ended up briefly connected to overlapping labels. By the time Adekunle’s breakout single “Sade” landed in 2014, he and Simi were already friends.
What is now well documented is that the romance grew slowly. Adekunle has said in interviews that he was a fan of Simi’s music before he was anything else to her, and that working together on demos and writing sessions was where the friendship deepened. There was no grand public meet-cute. Just two artists with similar tastes, similar work ethics, and a shared sense of humour.
The Friends-to-Partners Era (2015 – 2018)
| Duration | Roughly 3 to 4 years before marriage |
| Status | Dating (kept private until 2019) |
| How They Met | Lagos music industry, around 2013 to 2014 |
| Public Confirmation | January 9, 2019 wedding announcement |
From 2015 onward, fans noticed the chemistry. The pair appeared on each other’s songs, posted playful banter on Twitter, and were photographed at industry events looking very comfortable together. They denied dating for years. In interviews on Nigerian radio and on YouTube shows, both Adekunle and Simi repeatedly said they were “just friends” or “label mates” or “collaborators.” Looking back, almost no one in the Nigerian music press believed it. They were right not to.
The “just friends” line held publicly until early 2019. Behind it, the relationship had clearly become serious enough that they were already planning a wedding. The decision to stay quiet was deliberate and, by both their accounts later, the thing that protected the relationship long enough for it to become a marriage.
The Secret 2019 Wedding
On January 9, 2019, just one day after Adekunle Gold’s birthday week ended, the couple married in a private ceremony in Lagos. The guest list was tiny. Only immediate family and a handful of close friends were present. There were no industry cameras, no influencer livestreams, and no Bella Naija Weddings spread on the day. The first the wider public heard about it was when Adekunle and Simi posted a short photo set on their own social media confirming the news.
The reaction across Afrobeats Twitter was instant and, for once, almost unanimously warm. Fellow artists who had spent years teasing the pair finally felt vindicated. Nigerian press outlets including Pulse.ng and BellaNaija ran the story within hours. Both Adekunle and Simi later explained that keeping the wedding small was a conscious choice. They wanted a marriage, not a media event.
Daughter Adejare and Family Life
In May 2020, just over a year into their marriage, Adekunle and Simi welcomed their first child, a daughter named Adejare Kosoko. Simi gave birth in the United States, and the couple announced the news themselves on social media a few weeks later. The name Adejare loosely translates to “the crown has come home” in Yoruba, a sentiment both parents have referenced in interviews.
Adejare’s face has been almost entirely kept out of public posts. Adekunle and Simi share occasional glimpses, usually with her back to the camera or with emoji over her face. Both parents have said in separate interviews that they want Adejare to grow up with as normal a sense of self as possible, away from the comments section. As of 2026, she remains their only child.
Why They Keep Things Private
One of the most-asked questions about Adekunle and Simi is simply: why so quiet? In a music industry where most relationships play out in IG captions and “soft launches,” theirs is the opposite. The answer they have both given, repeatedly, is that privacy is part of how the marriage works. Simi has said that not every part of their lives needs an audience, and that the things they share publicly are chosen carefully.
That stance has held even through Adekunle Gold’s biggest commercial years, when his albums “Afro Pop Vol. 1” and “Catch Me If You Can” pushed him into a global touring schedule. He still mentions Simi in interviews. He still posts on her birthday. He just does not turn the marriage into content.
