Leyman Lahcine: The French Artist Behind Paloma Faith’s Ex-Husband Search—and the Life He Built Away From Celebrity
His name is usually searched because of Paloma Faith, but the public record reveals a London-based artist with his own exhibitions, visual language and creative career.
Leyman Lahcine occupies an unusual place in British celebrity culture. His name became widely recognisable through his long relationship with singer Paloma Faith, yet his own professional identity was established in contemporary art rather than music or television.
That distinction matters more now because searches for “Leyman Lahcine” and “Paloma Faith’s ex-husband” often produce the same simplified answer: a former partner of a famous singer and father of her two daughters. The stronger evidence tells a broader story. Lahcine was born in France in 1987, developed a creative career through fashion and visual art, spent several years in New York, moved to London, exhibited in Soho and later became associated with the Sarabande Foundation.
His private life with Faith was substantial, lasting roughly a decade and producing two daughters. But the relationship was only one part of a career that continued through exhibitions, studio practice and new bodies of artwork after their separation.
BLUF: Leyman Lahcine is a French-born visual artist, born in 1987, who lives and works in London and became widely known through his relationship with Paloma Faith. The couple had two daughters and separated in 2022. Lahcine’s own career spans painting, drawing, sculpture, exhibitions and creative work.
Leyman Lahcine at a Glance
| Profile detail | Verified public record |
|---|---|
| Name | Leyman Lahcine |
| Birth year | 1987 |
| Birthplace | France; contemporary profiles identify Grenoble |
| Heritage | North African heritage |
| Profession | Visual artist |
| Base | London, England |
| Artistic mediums | Painting, drawing and sculpture |
| Earlier creative experience | Fashion in New York |
| London arrival | 2014, according to a 2024 artist profile |
| Known public relationship | Paloma Faith |
| Children | Two daughters with Faith |
| Relationship period | Approximately 2012/2013 to 2022, depending on source wording |
| Reported marriage | Widely reported as 2017 |
| Current public role | London-based contemporary artist |
| Verified personal net worth | Not publicly established |
Sarabande Foundation describes Lahcine as a French-born artist from a North African family, born in 1987 and living and working in London. Something Curated places his upbringing in Grenoble and says he spent six years in New York before settling in London in 2014.
The exact day and month of his birth have not been established by the strongest sources reviewed, so precise age claims should be treated cautiously.
Grenoble, New York and the Making of an Artist
Lahcine’s early biography begins in Grenoble, where he was born in 1987. A 2024 profile by Something Curated describes him as growing up in Grenoble in a family of Algerian parents before moving into the wider creative world.
His route into art was not especially conventional.
The Glass Magazine interviewed Lahcine in 2015 and described him at the time as a French-Algerian artist who had spent five years in New York. The same interview noted that he was studying fashion design at Kingston University but already regarded himself primarily as an artist who worked with fashion rather than someone seeking a conventional fashion-design career.
That New York period appears to have been formative. In the 2015 interview, Lahcine discussed how trying to satisfy an audience in New York had at times caused him to compromise his creativity. His later approach became more explicitly personal, with painting positioned as a form of individual expression rather than a product designed around market expectations.
Something Curated later described a trajectory from Grenoble to New York and then London, where he had lived since 2014. The profile also reported that, by 2024, he was studying to teach creative practices in higher education.
The chronology matters because it places the Paloma Faith relationship inside a much larger creative migration rather than making the relationship the starting point of Lahcine’s story.
Read About other Ex of Paloma Faith: Rian Haynes: The Quiet Story of Paloma Faith’s First Husband
The Soho Exhibition That Put His Art on the Record
By 2015, Lahcine was exhibiting publicly in London.
His exhibition Lunatic With A Fruitcake opened at Maison Bertaux on Greek Street in Soho. The venue was unusual: a historic French patisserie with an exhibition space above it. The Glass Magazine covered the exhibition in detail, while AnOther subsequently examined the ideas behind Lahcine’s work.
AnOther described Lahcine’s work as mixing a faux-naïve visual style with darker and more unsettling imagery. The publication also highlighted his interest in overheard conversations and the fragments of ordinary life that could become material for an artwork.
That approach helps explain why his paintings can look playful at first glance but carry considerably heavier themes underneath.
His work has included cartoon-like characters, surreal figures and deliberately awkward or provocative compositions. The humour is not simply decorative. In the 2015 Glass interview, Lahcine explained that some works were intended as satirical responses to capitalism and the influence of major corporations.
The exhibition also provided one of the earliest published connections between Lahcine and Paloma Faith. During the Glass interview, he referred discreetly to having met “the love of my life”; the publication reported that the woman was Faith.
What His Art Actually Looks Like
Sarabande Foundation now provides the clearest institutional description of Lahcine’s practice.
The foundation describes a visual vocabulary built around bright colours and cartoon-like imagery, frequently contrasted with dark or melancholic emotional tones. His practice crosses painting, drawing and sculpture, while religious and mythological references are combined with ideas surrounding the subconscious, transgenerational trauma and emotional burdens.
This creates a recurring tension within the work.
The surfaces can be colourful and immediately accessible. The subjects can appear almost childlike. Yet the underlying themes often deal with spirituality, memory, identity, emotional weight and unconscious experience.
A Sarabande profile says Lahcine’s figures and narratives connect internal thought with everyday experience. Another Sarabande feature, published ahead of his solo exhibition Tides of Consciousness, specifically explored his use of symbols as expressions of the unconscious.
The artist’s process is also less detached from everyday objects than a conventional gallery biography might suggest.
In Something Curated’s 2024 profile, Lahcine discussed sketchbooks, a tuning fork, paint and other objects around his studio. The article presented his practice as part of a broader search for meaning involving meditation, harmony, love and equilibrium.
Paloma Faith and Leyman Lahcine: A Relationship Built Mostly Away From the Cameras
Lahcine and Faith were together for many years before their split became public.
Contemporary reporting in 2016 identified Lahcine as Faith’s long-term partner and the father of her first child. Faith announced her first pregnancy in August 2016, and the couple welcomed a daughter later that year.
By 2020, their family life was a significant part of Faith’s interviews. The Guardian reported that Faith and Lahcine were raising their daughter together and spending increased time together during lockdown. Faith described Lahcine as a sensitive and kind father and said they had developed a strong working relationship during the pressures of family life and her career.
The couple later welcomed a second daughter in February 2021 after Faith said she had undergone six rounds of IVF. British GQ reported that Lahcine appeared in Faith’s documentary As I Am, which explored her pregnancy, motherhood, career pressures and relationship with him.
This period is important because Lahcine was not merely a celebrity boyfriend. He was a long-term partner and an active parent during a major period of Faith’s professional and personal life.
Was Leyman Lahcine Really Paloma Faith’s Husband?
This is one of the areas where the public record requires careful wording.
Reports in 2017 said Faith and Lahcine had married in a private London ceremony attended by close friends and family. Press Trust of India reported that the couple had tied the knot after approximately four years together, while other contemporary reports similarly described a private wedding.
Later reporting also repeatedly referred to Lahcine as Faith’s husband. The Standard reported in 2023 that Faith had split from her husband, while 2024 coverage from the same publication again described Lahcine as her former husband.
There is, however, an interesting wrinkle.
When Faith spoke to The Independent in October 2023, she said people assumed she was married because they could not understand why she would have children with someone without marrying him. The article noted that Wikipedia claimed a 2017 marriage, but Faith herself did not confirm that marriage in the interview.
The most precise formulation is therefore this: a 2017 marriage was widely reported, and subsequent mainstream coverage has regularly described Lahcine as Faith’s former husband, but Faith did not publicly confirm the marriage when speaking to The Independent in 2023.
That distinction avoids turning conflicting public reporting into greater certainty than the record supports.
Two Daughters, a Separation and a Different Kind of Family Life
Faith and Lahcine share two daughters whose names have generally been kept out of mainstream public reporting.
Their relationship ended in 2022, after roughly nine years according to some reports and around ten years according to others. The Independent described the relationship as lasting ten years, while the Standard reported a nine-year relationship.
Faith later spoke extensively about the separation.
In 2023, she described the breakup as deeply painful and connected the experience to her next album, The Glorification of Sadness. The album became an artistic response to the end of the relationship and the practical reality of continuing to raise two children together.
By 2024, Faith said she remained on good terms with Lahcine and that their continuing contact was unavoidable because they were parents together. In an Independent report on her comments about parenting, she said the children spent several nights a week with their father and that she was pleased they had a good relationship with him.
In another interview, Faith said she still loved Lahcine and that their relationship remained emotionally complicated precisely because they shared children.
The result is a family structure that has changed without erasing the long relationship that came before it.
The 2024 Sarabande Chapter Changed the Focus Back to Art
One of the clearest signs that Lahcine’s independent identity continued to develop after the split was his work with Sarabande Foundation.
Sarabande identifies him as an artist and has presented multiple works through its House of Bandits programme. In February and March 2024, the foundation staged Tides of Consciousness, a solo exhibition focused on symbolism, unconscious thought, mythological references and emotional experience.
Lahcine was also included in Sarabande’s 2024 group exhibition A Place: Part 2: …Stay Longer, presented in London from August 22 to September 6. MutualArt records him among the participating Sarabande artists.
The later work reinforces the idea that Lahcine’s career should be read primarily through his artistic output rather than through celebrity association.
House of Bandits has continued to feature his work. A current product listing for Man Asleep gives a £300 price and identifies the medium as acrylic and oil on canvas with copper. Another Sarabande listing for Female Figure Washing Her Feet 1 records a 2024 acrylic-and-oil work on wood panel priced at £945 before being marked sold out.
These figures are artwork asking prices, not evidence of Lahcine’s salary, earnings or personal fortune.
Financial Trajectory: What Can Actually Be Valued?
Leyman Lahcine’s personal net worth is not publicly verified.
There is no authoritative wealth disclosure, audited personal financial statement, major financial publication estimate or transparent asset portfolio that would support a credible personal net-worth calculation.
What can be documented is the commercial presence of his artwork.
| Artwork / reference | Publicly listed price | What it demonstrates |
|---|---|---|
| Man Asleep | £300 | Commercial availability through Sarabande |
| Female Figure Washing Her Feet 1 | £945 | Market value for a 2024 work |
| Love Dance | £1,600 | House of Bandits listing |
| Personal net worth | Not verified | No authoritative calculation available |
House of Bandits has also listed Love Dance by Lahcine at £1,600, demonstrating that individual works can command significantly different asking prices.
That does not make it possible to calculate his wealth. Artwork prices are not equivalent to annual income, and gallery or foundation listings do not reveal commission structures, sales volume, expenses, taxes, studio costs or private holdings.
For a biography that aims to separate evidence from internet estimates, the responsible financial assessment is simple: Lahcine’s artwork has documented market prices, but his personal net worth remains unverified.
The Timeline Behind the Name
| Year | Documented event |
|---|---|
| 1987 | Leyman Lahcine is born in France; Sarabande identifies his birth year as 1987. |
| 2000s–early 2010s | He spends several years in New York working in or around fashion, according to later profiles. |
| 2014 | Something Curated reports that he moves to London. |
| 2015 | His exhibition Lunatic With A Fruitcake is presented at Maison Bertaux in Soho. |
| 2015 | The Glass Magazine publishes an extended interview about his art and New York background. |
| 2016 | Paloma Faith announces her first pregnancy with Lahcine. |
| December 2016 | The couple welcome their first daughter. |
| 2017 | A private marriage between Faith and Lahcine is widely reported. |
| 2020 | Faith discusses family life with Lahcine during lockdown and his role as a father. |
| 2021 | The couple welcome their second daughter after Faith’s reported six rounds of IVF. |
| 2022 | Their long-term relationship ends. |
| 2023 | Faith publicly confirms the separation and discusses life as a single mother. |
| 2024 | Lahcine presents Tides of Consciousness at Sarabande Foundation and participates in further exhibitions. |
| 2025 | House of Bandits continues to feature Lahcine artwork. |
| 2026 | His public identity remains principally tied to visual art and his former relationship with Faith. |
The chronology is deliberately cautious where public sources disagree over the precise length of the relationship or the details of the 2017 marriage.
Why Searches Still Begin With “Paloma Faith’s Ex-Husband”
The answer is visibility.
Faith built a major public career as a singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. Lahcine built his career in a much quieter field, where studio practice and gallery exhibitions naturally generate less mainstream coverage.
That imbalance means search engines tend to explain Lahcine through the person millions of people already know.
Yet the available art record is substantial enough to make that shorthand incomplete. Sarabande has represented his creative practice, exhibitions have documented his work, contemporary publications have interviewed him about his art, and artwork from his studio has entered commercial listings.
His public biography is therefore best understood on two parallel tracks: Leyman Lahcine, the artist, and Leyman Lahcine, the former long-term partner of Paloma Faith.
Neither erases the other.
Where Is Leyman Lahcine Now?
The strongest recent public evidence places Lahcine in London and continuing as a working artist.
Sarabande’s artist profile identifies him as London-based, while Something Curated’s 2024 profile described him working in a north London studio and participating in the Sarabande community.
Public information about his day-to-day private life remains limited.
There is no well-established public record that justifies publishing an exact current residence, detailed private schedule, personal financial portfolio or intimate family arrangements beyond what has already been disclosed through reputable interviews.
That relative privacy is one of the defining features of Lahcine’s public profile.
He has become searchable because of celebrity, but his own professional record is considerably quieter.
People Also Ask About Leyman Lahcine
Who is Leyman Lahcine?
Leyman Lahcine is a French-born visual artist who was born in 1987 and lives and works in London. His work spans painting, drawing and sculpture, using bright colours, cartoon-like figures and darker themes connected to mythology, spirituality, subconscious experience and emotional weight. He became widely known outside the art world through his long-term relationship with singer Paloma Faith.
Is Leyman Lahcine Paloma Faith’s ex-husband?
Leyman Lahcine is widely described in mainstream reporting as Paloma Faith’s former husband. Reports said the pair married privately in London in 2017, while Faith did not personally confirm the marriage when speaking to The Independent in 2023. Later reporting from The Standard has repeatedly described Lahcine as her former husband following their 2022 separation.
How long were Paloma Faith and Leyman Lahcine together?
Paloma Faith and Leyman Lahcine were together for approximately a decade. Some reputable reports describe their relationship as nine years, while The Independent described it as ten years. They separated in 2022 and have two daughters together.
Does Leyman Lahcine have children?
Leyman Lahcine has two daughters with Paloma Faith. Their first daughter was born in December 2016 and their second daughter was born in February 2021. Faith has spoken publicly about maintaining a positive relationship between Lahcine and their children following the couple’s separation.
What kind of art does Leyman Lahcine make?
Leyman Lahcine creates paintings, drawings and sculptures. Sarabande Foundation describes his work as combining bright, playful and cartoon-like imagery with darker emotional undertones. Religious and mythological references, subconscious thought, transgenerational trauma and emotional burdens recur in descriptions of his practice.
What is Leyman Lahcine’s net worth?
Leyman Lahcine’s personal net worth is not publicly verified. His artworks have been publicly listed for hundreds or more than a thousand pounds through Sarabande and House of Bandits, but individual artwork prices cannot be used to calculate his total wealth, annual earnings or private assets.
The Part of Leyman Lahcine’s Story That Survives Without Paloma Faith
Leyman Lahcine’s public image was shaped by one of Britain’s most recognisable singers, but the underlying record reveals a person whose professional identity existed before the relationship and continued after it.
He was born in France in 1987, developed creative interests through New York and London, exhibited at Maison Bertaux, worked across painting, drawing and sculpture, and became associated with Sarabande Foundation and House of Bandits. His visual practice has its own vocabulary and its own documented exhibition history.
The “Paloma Faith’s ex-husband” label remains useful for explaining why so many readers encounter his name, but it does not fully describe the man behind it.
The more revealing biography is the one that keeps both facts in view: Lahcine was part of Faith’s family life for roughly a decade, and he was also building a creative career that belonged entirely to him.
Editorial Disclaimer: This profile distinguishes established public records from reported or unverified details. Information concerning private finances, exact birth dates, private residence, family arrangements and the precise legal status or timing of personal relationships is included only where supported by credible public sources.
