Nandi Madida

“I had to heal so much so that I am able to understand that my children are born through me but belong to God. In that way, I don’t project onto them. I’m even counting down the years until my son leaves home to go flourish,” she jokes—yet it’s clear she’s deeply intentional about preparing them for the world while also allowing them to discover their own callings”

“That’s why they get along so well. My daughter doesn’t want the spotlight and my son thrives in it. There’s no competition—just harmony”

“My daughter, on the other hand, is introverted. So graceful, so beautiful. She has this quiet confidence”

“My son is Mr. Entertainer, Extrovert. In a room full of people, he’s that kid who stands out. He loves socialising and is so independent. He even has an exhibition coming up in September and is also a pianist. OMG, he is everything”

“My children are like black and white, the most different ever. And I love it”

“I want society to be comfortable with these kinds of conversations—conversations that matter”

“My dad is actually the one who suggested a doctor and by the time we got there, I was already convinced. I was convincing my family she was on the spectrum. I was just happy to get that confirmation. And I’m happy to always talk about it to normalise it”

“So when my daughter received her diagnosis, it became a moment of clarity—one that also helped me better understand my own family’s history”

“When my daughter got her diagnosis as being on the autistic spectrum, that was enlightening. More than anything, it helped us understand our family genetics. Back then, there wasn’t much information. You didn’t have a name for things, but we were always very sensory sensitive”

“It’s through my kids that I’ve come to better understand myself and see what else I still need to work on”

“I pride myself on working on myself as often as I can, and I finally reached a place of real self-awareness after I had kids. For example, I’ve always known I was neurodivergent—I have ADHD—but I didn’t fully understand the effects, especially how it ties into anxiety”

“Being a mom is like a passion project that doesn’t stop”

“My kids are like my own dopamine”

“Motherhood is healing. When done in the right way, it’s healing because you have to heal. You are forced to look at yourself and heal, so it’s humbling as well”

“Zakes and I went for many sessions of marriage counselling before tying the knot. Those sessions were very insightful into what married life was like and preparing to make that transition from being someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend into being a wife and husband,”

“A lot of people were surprised about the wedding, but not us and especially not my parents. By the time Zakes proposed, my parents already knew because he asked them for my hand in marriage. So technically I was the last to know.”

“Make sure your relationship is between you and the person you love, no one has power over it, no one has a say over it and people will always talk, we were laughing. People will try and break something that’s beautiful, there’s nothing you can do”