Celebrities’ marriages: The bad, the good and the ugly

Being a celebrity is one thing a lot of people will forever cherish.

Celebrities are always held in high esteem and with accolades of superstar status, one cannot but be green with envy. But that is how far the sweet tales goes as the issue of single -parenthood and crashed marriages among celebrities stick out like a sore thumb. Though, marriages of some of them still work out as some of them have been married for years. In this write-up, Ajibade Alabi chronicles why most of these celebrities marriages do not always see the light of the day and while some of them despite the odds still stand the test of time. He also spoke with some of the affected couple and the “lucky” ones who are still in the “system”

Marriage, that seven letter word is one institution that God said in his Holy books, of Bible and Quran must be adored and respected. In fact the Holy Bible goes further to let us believe that God created woman out of the man s ribs, which it was later interpreted that the since a woman was created out man, it is a MUST for a man to get married so as to “recover” his missing ribs from the woman, since the woman will permanently be his life partner. To summarize it all, a chapter in the Holy Bible said: “What God has joined together let no man put asunder”. But it seems none of our celebrities whose marriages do not see the light of the day whether by omission or by commission did not go through this chapter in the Bible. Not keeping a marriage among celebrities in Nigeria is not only in vogue, but is also becoming the order of the day as the ones that are married among them are opting out for reasons one cannot fathom.

Monalisa Chinda, walked out of her marriage without any concrete reason. Before her, Foluke Daramola after much denials of a problem in her marriage finally called it quits and married a society big man, Kayode Salako.

The marriage of Ronke Ojo( Oshodi Oke) despite her stance that the marriage is intact is not a bed of roses if what is been whispered around are to be believed and yet neither Ronke nor her husband will come out to categorically stated that the marriage which was ordained in 2009 is already consigned to history as both parties have been denying the crashed marriage in the media, that is the price they are paying as a celebrity. “We are not divorced. We are just separated. We still talk. My husband loves me till tomorrow” she claimed. Then one will start to search for the difference between the words of separated and divorced in the dictionary.

9ce and Tony Payne story will also come to one’s mind.

Kenny Saint Brown and Eddy Kareem Idris romance is legendary. The wedding could not stand the test of time despite producing an issue. It is the same story with the marriage of Folashade Omoniyi, the one her fans passionately called Lepa Shandy. Her five-years-old marriage crashed due to what she called irreconcilable differences with her husband. Though, she has since re-married with a baby to show for it.Ditto to Lola Alao, the beautiful sexy Ebira, Kogi State actress, she called it quits with her husband due to the distance between them.

There was Also Bimbo Akintola s love story with Dede, the bad boy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti is an open story. It got crashed before it began, as both parties threw caution to the winds calling themselves a lot of unprintable names.

Though, inability of several female artistes to keep marriages is truly a global phenomenon. American singing star, Madonna, has in recent times fallen in and out of marriages. Even Janet Jackson had to dump her age long lover.

On the home front we have had failed marriages involving Victor Essien and Peggy Umannah of the Mandators Fame, and that of Evi Edna-Ogoli and her producer, for whom she had two children. The celebrated marriage of American music star Bobby Brown and his late wife Whitney Houston is one very sour grape in the garden with sex, drugs and violence as regular features in their relationship.

Not keeping a marriage among female artistes in Nigeria is not only in vogue, but is also the orders of the day as the one that are married among them are opting out for reasons one could not fathom. Ucheria Anunobi calls it quits with her marriage sighting lack of love from her husband, she in fact was quoted to have said that she went into the marriage blindly “I went to my marriage blindly. It was later I realized I was not in love with the man and vice versa. It was so painful”

Another crashed celebrity marriage “between” Owerri-Imo State born actress Ann Njeamanze and screen “bad boy” Segun Arinze came as a shock when the marriage could not move further. Before the marriage crumbled, both lovers were always seeing playing Romeo and Juliet in any film location, that people started seeing them as a role model on how a celebrity couple should be. But when the marriage crumbled following series of scandals including infidelity on both sides it came as a shock as who is who in the industry tried in vain to reconcile them. So the marriage became history with both parties going their way, not minding the fact that the “short” marriage produced an issue.

Same story goes for the marriage of Saheed Balogun and Faithia Balogun, the marriage that produced three children crashed like a badly arranged pack of cards after both part accused each other of insincerity. It came to a point that Saheed Balogun asked Faithia to stop using his surname (Balogun) again. “Since I have children for him I will not stop using his surname” was the response of this Delta State light skinned actress as to why she will continue to use the surname of Saheed, who is already planning to re-marry. When Saheed Balogun was asked to comment on her failed marriage with Faithia, he declined “I don t want to speak about the past. Let her continue with her life and I continue with mine. She is now my past” also on her part Faithia was not forthcoming on the crashed marriage that was the talk of town year’s back “I don t known what you want me to say about the issue again? It is a past and everybody has gone on his or her way, so I don t want to dwell on it. I believe we are not meant for one another anymore” recently they were spotted in a social gathering where Saidi spray Faithia some naira notes, may be to appreciate the time they once spent together (my opinion).

For Kenny Saint Brown and Eddy Remedy, it was a case of love wax cold. This is a marriage that many believed it will be a reference point as far as celebrity marriage is concerned. The reason been that both are well known musician with Kenny Ogugbe a major holder in entertainments been a brother to Saint Brown as a bait that will not allow Eddy to go astray but when the issue shoot out, not even Kenny could save the situation

The marriage of Daniel Ademinokan and Doris Simeon is now history. This is a marriage that dominated the headline that paparazzi always feed on, but the marriage could not last as both party parted ways. Daniel who is also a well known film director has finally settled down with another Nollywood star actress, Stella Damasus whose marriage with Nzeribe could not last more than 18 months.

When Laide Bakare announced the dissolution of her marriage to Mr. Okufulure. The issue became more complicated when barely a month after she announced the dissolution of her marriage, she gave birth to a baby girl, claiming the baby is for her new husband. Eye brow were raised as to who is the real father of the baby, given the fact that she left her husband not up to a month before she gave birth to another one. “I know the father of my baby” she claimed

That Funke Akindele’s marriage to Kehinde Almaroof Oloyede could not see beyond 18 months last year, as Jenifa and her entangled husband divorced on social media, even though both have gone their different ways with Funke now remarried.

Nollywood star actress, Mercy Aigbe had to walk out of her marriage when she could no longer tolerate the physical abuse from her husband Gentry who was bent on sending her to her early grave, now the sexy actress is better without the man that she was proclaimed to love “till death do us apart”
However, it was not all gloomy as some of them are happily married and are even celebrating years of successful marriage.

Olu and Joke Jacobs come to mind. This couple has been married for years. Even though they may have their hi cups, but they are not known for scandals. “It is all down to understanding. We do have issues, but we settle our differences.” Olu Jacobs said of their marriage. Hope the young couples and the on that are not yet married can learn from this couple.
On why it is difficult for celebrities to keep their marriage Joke Silva said. “The problem with some of them is that they don t really take time to understand themselves. The solution is the couple should understand couple should understand themselves very well, which is what is lacking in this present generation”

Another good example of good celebrity’s couple is Mr. And Mrs. Fidelis Duker. The couples who have been married for close to 20 years have this to say. First to speak was Fidelis Duker. “For us the secret of our over 15 years is that we don’t keep secret from ourselves. For instance I don t keep my hand set from him and I don t know how many couple can do that now another thing is we don t allow outsiders to intervened into our affairs but the most important thing is understanding between us.

On the part of the wife Temitope Duker the secret is faithfulness she said how many women are faithful to their husband these days the fact that you are a celebrities does not mean you should not be submissive to your husband