GAMU SAYS I DO
X Factor starlet walks down the aisle with her Scots-born musician sweetheart Jamie
FORMER X Factor hopeful Gamu Nhengu has found her happy ending after getting married to her Scots sweetheart. The Zimbabwe-born singer – who was threatened with deportation along with her family after an immigration wrangle – walked down the aisle on Sunday. The scene was a picture of happiness as she and her Stirlingborn music shop worker husband Jamie Rintoul swapped rings. Gamu, who lived in nearby Tillicoultry with her family before moving to London to become a stylist and make music with her and Jamie’s band Sheltrs, hit the headlines as an 18-year-old contestant on X Factor in 2010.
She lost her place to Katie Waisel after an immigration row when it was revealed her family’s visa application was submitted late.
At the time, she pleaded with immigration officials not to send her and her family back to Zimbabwe, where she feared being killed by a death squad if she returned.
Recently, Gamu made a brief return to the public eye after presenter Rylan Clark launched a campaign to find her in the Xtra Factor.
Gamu said at the time: “I was trying hard to pretend the past six years had not happened. If you asked me if I was Gamu from X Factor, I 99 per cent probably would’ve said, ‘No’. If you do it now, it might still be the same.”
She added: “Sheltrs is a band made up of myself and Jamie.
“We possibly don’t quite know exactly what we’re doing. But we do know what we love.
“I’ve realised that worrying about what we will become will not progress us further but will only succeed in holding us back.”
The two lovebirds have been dating since June 2015 and got engaged in September last year.