Atila Altaunbay: Facts about Grace Jones' ex-husband

May 2024 · 4 minute read

Atila Altaunbay is the ex-husband of Grace Jones. Jones’s ex-husband, Altaunbay is a Jamaican-American model, singer, songwriter, and actress. In 1999, Jones ranked 82nd on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll, and in 2008, she was honored with a Q Idol Award.

Atila Altaunbay: Profile Summary

Full NameAtila Altaunbay
Famous asEx-wife of Grace Jones
Age47
Date of Birth1976
Place of BirthTurkey
NationalityTurkish
Professionmodel, singer, and bodyguard

Atila Altaunbay is a Turkish Muslim model, singer, and bodyguard who became popular after his marriage to the top Jamaican-American model, Grace Beverly Jones also known as Grace Mendoza. The two former love birds got married on the 24th of February 1996. The marriage which caused a stir at the start did not last very long before they parted ways, although they did not officially divorce.

Altaunbay disappeared from the radar after the marriage, hence it has been hard to keep tabs on him. Nonetheless, here is a look at some facts about him.

Altaunbay used to work as a pizza delivery boy in Belgium and later worked as one of the bodyguards of Jones back in those days. Although Atila Altaunbay was born in Turkey and is of Turkish descent, he grew up and lived most of his life in Belgium.

He was not just a singer and model, he also featured in some movies. 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. He has an amazing voice and used to sing at weddings.

How did the two former love birds meet? As said earlier, Atila worked as a bodyguard to Grace Jones before they finally fell in love. They met in Belgium where Atila lived. They got married in Rio de Janeiro 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.

Following the wedding, they headed to a gym to work out while arranging their trip to New York for their honeymoon. Grace Jones’ father, on the other hand, married the pair again at their family home in Syracuse.

The couples did not have any children together.

Before and after Atila Altaunbay, Grace Jones was never married. Grace had a number of ‘high-profile’ relationships through the years.

She dated and has a couple of boyfriends, even has a child with one of the boyfriends but never married any other.

There were rumors of her getting married to Chris Stanley but she debunked the rumors in her 2005 memoir and stated that they only dated for a few years.

ALSO, READ; Khaza Kamil Gates, Kevin Gates’ son

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

Grace Jones and Atila broke up when Atila pulled out a knife on her during a fight they had. Atila is said to be a shy person and didn’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 boys and this triggered their argument, fight, and subsequent breakup.

ALSO, READ; Dakota Culkin, Macaulay Culkin’s sister: How did she die?

It is said that Atila was impartial to Grace’s ex-boyfriends including Paulo who Grace had a son for.

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.

ALSO, READ; Kristin Grannis, Jamie Foxx’s on and Off Girlfriend

Atila Altaunbay was 21 years old when he got married to Grace Jones.

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.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXCsqurnZ6ZwG%2BvzqZmmqyZoa5urcutmK6mkpbGbrPRmpqeZZqku6a%2FjJ6vZqClqK%2BiusNo