Saturday, July 4, 2015

Sibel Kekilli's relationship status given away by George R.R. Martin

After a 10-day trip to Europe during which he spent some time in Hamburg, Germany with former "Game of Thrones" actress Sibel Kekilli, "A Song of Ice and Fire" author George R.R. Martin posted the highlights of that trip on his LiveJournal page on Thursday, July 2. Within that blog entry, he revealed something that had been a closely-guarded secret -- Kekilli is not single.

Martin spoke before a crowd of 3000 fans in Hamburg Sunday, June 21 when he appeared at the Harbourfront Literaturfestival. Kekilli was in the audience, and that weekend she served as Martin's tour guide to the city. Last December, Martin served as Kekilli's tour guide in Santa Fe, New Mexico during a visit that was videotaped for the European documentary TV program, "Durch die Nacht." According to Martin, he spent his leisure time in Hamburg hanging out with Kekilli, her boyfriend, and his German publicist, Sebastian.

"Sibel fed me Turkish food and showed me some of Hamburg's nightlife," Martin wrote. "Hamburg stays up later than Santa Fe, you will be surprised to learn, but chile con queso is nowhere to be found. We drank White Russians while huddled under blankets in an outdoor cafe. (We) took a canal boat tour as well."

Kekilli has fiercely guarded her personal life ever since the German tabloid "Bild" broke the story of Kekilli's previous work in porn films. The story was published in February 2004 shortly after Kekilli received acclaim at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in her debut mainstream film, "Gegen die Wand." She briefly went into hiding before giving an interview to the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" to discuss her seven-month career in porn, but after speaking with that newspaper and several other media outlets that year about her past, she stopped talking about her personal life altogether.

"It was then I spoke in public against my will a lot about myself." Kekilli said in a 2010 interview with "Die Welt." "Now I think: Okay, that's enough! That was six years ago, it's enough. Let's talk about my work!" [translated from German]

Kekilli has never been married, although she did participate in a wedding ceremony in 1999 with her then-finance, Stephan. However, as the daughter of Turkish immigrants, Kekilli was not considered a German citizen, and thus she needed a certificate of no impediment ("Ehefähigkeitszeugnis") from the Turkish government in order to officially marry Stephan, who was a native-born German citizen. The certificate was not issued in a timely fashion, so the marriage was not completed and the couple later broke up. Kekilli subsequently became an official German citizen.

During her acting career, Kekilli has appeared at numerous red carpet events, but she does so almost exclusively without a male companion. In 2009, Kekilli was reported to be dating Finnish actor Antti Luusuaniemi, her co-star in the movie "Pihalla." Kekilli recently told "Neon Ghost" that for a two-year period, she spent more time in Finland than in Germany. According to "Bild," Kekilli currently lives in an apartment in the Altona section of Hamburg, but it's unclear if she lives there with her unidentified current boyfriend.