Atila Altaunbay: Where is Grace Jones’ Ex-husband Now?

Atila Altaunbay is the ex-husband of Grace Jones. Atila Altaunbay’s ex-wife is a Jamaican-American model, singer, songwriter, and actress. As a singer, she was ranked 82nd on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll, and in 2008, she was honored with a Q Idol Award. As a model, She has worked for top fashion houses including Yves St. Laurent and Kenzo and has appeared on the covers of Elle and Vogue. She notably worked with photographers such as Jean-Paul Goude, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, and Hans Feurer. She made a name for herself for her distinctive androgynous appearance and bold features.

Atila Altaunbay: Bio Summary

Who is Atila Altaunbay?

Atila Altaunbay is a Turkish Muslim model, singer, and bodyguard who gained wider popularity after his marriage to the top Jamaican-American model, Grace Jones also known as Grace Mendoza. Altaunbay was born in 1976 in Turkey and as of 2024, he is 48 years old. He grew up and lived most of his life in Belgium.

According to reports, Altaunbay used to work as a pizza delivery boy in Belgium where the former love birds first met, and later worked as one of the bodyguards of Jones. In Model’s biography, “I’ll Never Write My Memoirs,” she described Altaunbay as good-looking, and he caught her attention. Aside from being a bodyguard, he was also a singer and model, he has also been featured in some movies.

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Atila Altaunbay has been featured in many stage plays but his first popular on-screen feature came when he acted in the movie; ‘Mind Games’. Before he met his ex-wife, Jones, Atila Altaunbay was taking singing classes and even performed at their wedding.

Grace Jones and Atila Altaunbay got married in Rio de Janeiro on the 24^th of February 1996 after Grace’s show during the Carnival celebrations in 1996. Grace Jones was said to have caused a stir with her then bodyguard during the carnival. Grace threatened to do an impromptu striptease during her performance after refusing to wear the official T-shirt which was to get her into a reserved box in the Sambadrome theatre.

About 50 people attended Atila Altaunbay and Jones’ wedding, which was held in a private home and conducted by a Presbyterian pastor the New York Times revealed. Following the wedding, they headed to a gym to work out while arranging their trip to New York for their honeymoon.

According to Amomama, the couple’s marriage was later declared invalid after some people found out the priest they used was gay. Grace Jones’ father married the pair again at their family home in Syracuse.

Atila Altaunbay was 21 years old when he got married to Grace Jones. He couldn’t return home because he disobeyed his family and their religion by marrying the model. In Jones’ book, she revealed they tried to keep their marriage private, but it leaked to the press while in Brazil. The Former couple did not have any children together.

Atila Altaunbay and Grace Jones Did Not Divorce After the Separation

Atila Altaunbay and Grace Jones ended the about 7-year-old marriage in 2004 however, some reports indicate they did Not divorce after the separation. However, Grace maintained that she could not find the former bodyguard to divorce him officially, but according to their perspective, they are divorced.

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The model and Atila ended it all when Atila pulled out a knife on her during a fight they had. Atila is said to be a shy person and doesn’t like any attention towards him. Being somewhat private and seeing his wife getting a lot of attention took a bad toll on Atila. Atila got jealous about how much attention Grace was getting from other men and this triggered their argument, fight, and subsequent breakup.

Grace Jones stated that Atila put the knife to her throat in a fit of jealousy during their argument and after that, he left their home and returned to his family but has been unreachable ever since.

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Where is Grace Jones’s ex-husband now?

Jones and Atila both knew she was a bit older than him as she was in her mid to late forties at the time but she did not realize how much younger until they did the paperwork for their marriage. Altaunbay disappeared from the radar after the marriage, hence it has been hard to keep tabs on him. Though they didn’t have any children, Grace Jones had a son from a previous relationship whose name is Paulo Goude.