Speculation of singer Ali Sethi’s ‘marriage to artist Salman Toor began on Thursday and took Pakistan’s social media space by storm. There is no statement made by either of them so the alleged union cannot be confirmed. However, what can be described with certainty is how they met and became close.

The fact that Sethi and Toor have known each other is no secret. The two have appeared in photos together on the internet for quite a while and Ali Sethi even posted a portriat of himself done by Toor on his Instagram page.

The possible union between Sethi and Toor was first hinted upon in a New Yorker article about the painter from 2022.

In the article, Toor explained his artistic journey in depth, explaining how he got into painting and why renaissance art appealed to him and made him into the artist he turned out to be.

It also explains how he grew up in Lahore, and met three friends who are still closest to him. One of them was Sethi, the other were Aijazuddin and Leo Kalyan.

The four friends took optional art classes in Lahore’s Aitchison. Sethi was quoted in the article as saying that he felt he had to protect Toor, who was vulnerable to abuse from the boys in the school because of being different. Sethi described that he could do this because he was the tallest of the group. He described Toor as guileless.

Kaylan also told the magazine that the group of friends was made fun of for being ‘girlie’ or girlish. Eventually, Toor told Sethi and Kaylan he was gay.

It was in Sethi’s house that the boys read a book called ‘Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man’. Picasso would eventually influnce Toor’s work.

The four kept in touch and met now and then as they moved abroad for university. They all dated different people.

In 2016, the article says, things changed when the two ‘realized that they belonged together’, the magazine claimed

“I knew I had found the person I wanted to be with for good,” Toor was quoted as saying in the article. He described their bond as ‘deep’. The two lived in separate apartments in New York.

It was also on Sethi’s nudging that Toor organised a sale of his paintings in the basement of his father’s car dealership in Lahore. The paintings sold out.

Sethi also told the magazine that Toor had confided to him about the problems of having a different identity.

“People like us don’t really belong anywhere,” Toor told him, according to New Yorker.