In 2006 Jamaican singer/deejay Kiprich topped the charts with his darkly humorous song “Telephone Ting,” in which a man’s wife calls back the female phone numbers stored in his cell. Kiprich laments, “Telephone ting mash up me life, it mek me girl run gone fi knife…”

In another example that proves the adage, “art imitates life” (and vice-versa), The King of Danchall, a.k.a. The Doctor, a.k.a. Ras Moses (or simply Beenie Man to his fans), has revealed in a television interview that the source of his very public split with his wife, performer Michele “D’Angel” Downer-Davis, was, in part, due to cell phone drama. A series of phone calls and messages intercepted by Beenie revealed a suspiciously close friendship between D’Angel and a former friend of Beenie’s. When confronted this past May and asked to break off the external relationship, D’Angel reportedly agreed at first, for the sake of the marriage.

Instead, according to Beenie in the interview, the calls kept coming. Apparently the name associated with the male companion had been changed to a female name, in a failed attempt to mask the number’s origin.

In an interview with members of the Jamaican press, D’Angel stated that the true reason for the split was due to physical abuse. She stated, “I am speaking out to clear my name that has been scandalized by my husband. Moses has a larger responsibility than most people; he is a public figure, yet he and so many others treat women less than human, with sexual and violent assaults. I am hurt by his actions, but I am strong.” 

Still other sources allege Beenie himself may have had a woman on the side in the form of Jamaican model and self-proclaimed “video girl” Faith Jackson Eselebor, a.k.a Barbee. 

But in his emotional interview on Jamaica’s CVM OnStage program in which Beenie discusses seeking counseling and flying home from Paris when things were on the rocks, he adamantly denies that the relationship ended for anything more than unfaithfulness on the part of D’Angel. Although the whether her friendship with this mystery man was anything more than verbal is anyone’s guess. What’s is clear: telephone ting a mash up life fe real. And even the most powerful celebrities are not immune to jealousy.