The estranged co-First Lady of Gabon was reported Wednesday to be filing for divorce in Los Angeles.
The celebrity news website TMZ.com reported that a woman it identified as “Inge” has been married to Gabon’s president since the mid-90s but has lived in penury and on welfare in Los Angeles. She met Ali Bongo Ondimba in 1991 when he lived in Los Angeles and they were married in Madrid three years later, according to TMZ.
Inge, the former Inge Lynn Collins, is an American from Los Angeles who says she has had three children with Ondimba, according to Wikepedia. She told ABC News in 2009 that she remained in California after their marriage but regularly visited Gabon. She also said she was mistreated in Gabon and ignored by her husband who, she said, “treated me like zombie.”
Inge’s divorce filing states she and her adopted 16-year-old son are living on welfare payments of $524 per month. It asks for full custody of the boy and spousal support. Inge says she’s received nothing from her husband since 2008, according to TMZ.
Ondimba married French-born Sylvia Bongo Ondimba in 1989. They have four children.
The Gabonese president is the son of the late President Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for more than four decades and whose estate was estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Odimba says the wealth will be shared with Gabon’s youth.
A former French colony on the west coast of Central Africa, Gabon has had three presidents since becoming independent in 1960.
—City News Service