Amr Diab — The 'Father of Mediterranean Music' and Three Failed Marriages

What Happened

Amr Diab, often called the 'Father of Mediterranean Music,' is the best-selling Arab recording artist in history and has dominated Middle Eastern pop culture for over three decades. His personal life, however, has been marked by serial marriage and divorce. His first marriage, to Egyptian actress Shereen Reda in 1989, lasted only three years, ending in 1992. They had one daughter, Nour.

In 1994, Diab married Saudi businesswoman Zeina Ashour, and for a time their marriage appeared stable. They had three children: twins Abdullah and Kenzy (born 2004) and daughter Jana. But after 24 years, Ashour filed for divorce in 2018, and the proceedings played out with relative discretion by celebrity standards. The divorce coincided with reports of Diab's relationship with Egyptian actress Dina El Sherbiny.

Diab married Dina El Sherbiny in 2018, the same year his second divorce was finalized. The marriage lasted approximately two years before ending in separation and divorce by late 2020. No children were born from this union. As of the most recent reports, Diab remains single — three times married, three times divorced, with four children from his first two marriages.

Under Egyptian personal status law, which is based on Islamic family law, men have different divorce mechanisms than women. A husband can initiate divorce (talaq) relatively easily, while a wife must seek judicial divorce (khul'), which may require returning the mahr (dowry). Ashour's initiation of the second divorce was notable because it demonstrated a wife exercising her right to seek dissolution rather than waiting for the husband to act.

Legal Breakdown: Serial divorce under Egyptian family law

What This Means for Your Divorce