Gucci Grace seized

It was Grace's hunger for power and her desire to replace her husband as Zimbabwe's ruler that ultimately led to him being deposed


Grace Mugabe, 53, has not been seen in public since the military took power

The tyrant’s wife Grace is being held in secret detention facilities by the rebels she had threatened to ‘crush’, it was revealed last night.

Grace Mugabe’s whereabouts had been shrouded in mystery since the coup – from reports that she had fled to neighbouring Namibia, to claims she had been living with her husband.

But Grace was taken away not long after her husband’s generals wrested power from him. Since then, she has been held alone at detention facilities at military bases dotted around the country – torture centres created by her husband to enable his feared state security to take people out of circulation.

It is not clear what will happen to Mrs Mugabe, dubbed Gucci Grace because of her love of spending sprees (pictured in Paris in 2003), now her husband has agreed to resign

Grace, 52, who Mugabe married in 1996 after spotting her in a government typing pool while his first wife Sally had terminal cancer, is being moved every two days.

This is to ensure that rumours do not spread about where she is being held, preventing any Mugabe loyalists from trying to free her – as well as ensuring that there is no rallying point for any supporters.

‘She was a bad influence on Mugabe while he was in power, and was a bad influence on him when we tried to negotiate a deal with him to stand down.  She was therefore taken away both to prevent them colluding and conspiring, and to isolate her husband further.

Grace married Robert Mugabe in 1996 in a £600,000 ceremony, and her lifestyle only grew more extravagant from there, spending a reported £2million on luxuries in 2014

The official added: ‘It’s best she is taken out of the picture and forgotten about for now – we will decide what to do with her later. She is a very rich lady and at some point we will want to find out all about how she made that money.’