THE self-styled queen of bling Khanyi Mbau said her bling has not faded, but that she has reinvented herself.

Mbau showed up at the True Love magazine's 40th anniversary do this month minus her usual bravado.

Mbau looked nothing like the lively person Mbau people knew She has gotten got rid of her weave, and has gone blond.

What's more, she was reserved, almost "invisible", with some of her "die-hard fans" only recognising her long after she'd slid quietly into the venue.

"People think because they do not see me in tabloids anymore, I have faded," she said. "Some say I am boring. Some say I cannot get rich men to sponsor my expensive lifestyle anymore. Some say men do not want me anymore. They don't know that I decided to change my lifestyle out of my will."

Mbau said in the past she thought she was "happening", but confessed that she was under pressure and feared fading.

"The new look is my being content with who I am. I have come to realise that hair and flashy things do not make a person. I have done it all. People know everything about me, including my nakedness. I did not gain anything from all that. The only thing I walked away with was shame. I am doing this to embrace myself."

She said she is seeing a businessman .

Asked how she was coping financially, Khanyi said she was making money through her music. "I'm with Kalawa (producer Oskido's record company). I perform almost every week. My self-worth has increased. I don't have to fear that someone will come and chase me out of the house he is paying for, or take his car."

- This article was published in print on 11 May 2012