He admitted during a Syariah Court divorce hearing in Shah Alam that while he had sex with Fatimatuzahra Samad, 25, he did not intend to reconcile with her.

The divorce hearing was highlighted on the front page by Kosmo! while other Malay papers gave a blow-by-blow account.

'I didn't say I wanted to get back together with her. That (the sex) was my effort to be on good terms with her,' said Jamal, adding that he wanted her to have a good relationship with his child from a previous marriage.

Jamal, 50, is said to have declared the talak satu to Fatimatuzahra on May 15, 2007 at 8pm although the well-known singer had disputed it, saying that he had made the proclamation at 10am on that day.

Fatimatuzahra had testified that they were in the car at that time and that Jamal was driving when he declared that he wanted a divorce.

'We had been in the car for 20 minutes. There was no quarrel or conversation between us, so that was why I was taken back by it. I just kept quiet,' she said.

Jamal, Fatimatuzahra said, did not seem himself then, which made her unsure whether he was fully aware of his divorce proclamation. The Syariah Court has fixed June 23 for a decision on the case.

This was Jamal's third marriage. His first marriage ended in 1988 after eight years.His first child, now eight years old, was from his second marriage, which also ended in divorce.

In 2005, Jamal married Fatimatu-zahra. They have a two-year-old son. -- THE STAR