Former television news anchor Esther Arunga has formally dropped the surname Timberlake from her official identity, reverting to her original name, Esther Adongo Arunga, 16 years after adopting her husband’s surname.
In a legal notice published in the Kenya Gazette on October 9, 2026, Arunga’s lawyers announced that she had formally and absolutely renounced the name Esther Adongo Timberlake.
The notice directed members of the public to identify and address her by her adopted name, Esther Adongo Arunga.
The development marks a significant change for the former journalist, whose life attracted widespread public attention in 2009 and 2010 following her association with controversial religious leader Joseph Hellon and her relationship with Quincy Timberlake.
Arunga previously worked at Capital FM and KTN, where she became a recognisable television personality. She also won the 2008 Chaguo la Teeniez Award for Best Teen TV Anchor and was admitted to the Kenyan Bar in 2009.
In March 2010, she publicly announced that she had changed her name from Esther Adongo Arunga to Esther Adongo Timberlake after marrying Quincy Timberlake.
The couple later relocated to Australia, where their family became the subject of a criminal investigation following the death of their three-year-old son, Sinclair, in June 2014.
Arunga pleaded guilty in 2019 to being an accessory in connection with the child’s death and was sentenced to 10 months in prison, but was immediately released on parole.
Quincy Timberlake pleaded guilty to manslaughter in September 2023 after prosecutors dropped the murder charge. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, with the court taking into account the period he had already spent in custody.
Arunga’s latest legal notice formally ends her use of the Timberlake surname, restoring the name by which she was known before the events that brought her personal life into the public spotlight.
