Why I love tattoos: I don’t really have as many tattoos as
people think I do. I just have three on me and they all have their
significance. The one on my hand is a rose
and it signifies love. The one on my chest is a crown and it means that
I am a queen in whatever I do – I call the shots. The one I have on my back
means that I see you even though you think I don’t. I see everything
you are doing, so watch it. They all have meaning and I am just someone
who loves tattoos. There are no negative reasons I love them. I am not
the only one wearing a tattoo, there are so many celebrities, both
local and foreign, who wear them. It is just something I like. I can
not describe why I like it. I feel it is sexy.
Life as a single mother: My daughter is an award-winning
actress. She is going to be 12 but she is not a full time actress. She
is still a baby and I try to restrict her acting so that she can
concentrate more on her studies. Once in a while, we allow her act and
only when she is on holidays. It has to be once in a while. When I
started, it was a bit stressful because my kids were quite young. I had
to be a working mother and
business woman at the same time. I am someone who always strives for
perfection. I am a very organised person. I draw out my time-table. I
have a schedule of my day-to-day life so I am never caught unawares.
That is why I don’t work too much. If I have planned my month and a
sudden job comes up, I will not take it. I always have a schedule I
follow in life and it has always helped me. When I am working, I know
how to place my kids in the right place, sometimes with my mother.
When they were much younger, they used to go with me but because of school, they stayed with my mother.
I have some of my sisters that stay around. Now, my kids have grown up
because my boy is 14 years old and the girl is 12 and they are both in
secondary school. They take care of themselves more now. Apart from
that, I still try to spend time at home more than I used to when they
were younger because they need my attention now. I need to be sure that
they are studying. They are becoming teenagers. Teenage pressure could
be much on them so I have to be the father and mother to them at all
times. It was not easy initially but as time goes on, you learn how to
manage it. It becomes easy as time goes on.
Their father: I relate with their father. I do not talk about it
because I give respect to my children, it is their privacy and they
want to keep it private. Like I said, we were not just compatible, I
met him and in a very short period of time, we got married. We really
did not have much time to date. I was 21 years old then. In less than
three months, I was pregnant and in less than six months, I was married
to him. It was a very short period of time. We basically got married
because of the pregnancy. We
did not want to have the baby out of wedlock. We got married and we
later discovered that there was some part of him that I did not like
and there were certain things about me that he did not also like. We were not friends and that was the disadvantage.
He was not my first, he was actually my third. I feel apart with my first boyfriend. My second boyfriend, we did not get intimate. So my ex was actually the second but my third boyfriend. I was young, I had my first boyfriend
when I was in SS3 and I was about 18 years old. Then we broke up and I
had somebody else. We were more like brothers and sisters in Christ so
we really did not have any sexual relationship. Then, I met my
ex-husband. He was the second man I was intimate with when it came to a
relationship. I was young and the kind of life he wanted was to be
married and still live the bachelor
life while I wanted him to be married and stay at home. That was were
we started having issues and problems but we are still friends. He
still communicates with his kids.
Regrets: I do not regret
leaving the marriage because I am better off. I regret rushing into
marriage, but I do not use the word ‘regret’ anymore. It has become a
lesson; I had to learn from that. Every disappointment is a blessing.
Even though I felt disappointed that I got married at a young age and
did not get to study the man I got married to and whose name I bear
now, I still profited from it by having two wonderful kids. It is more
than any other thing in life.
I vowed never to get married again: I said so back then when I
was disappointed. When you are going into a marriage with so much
expectation, hoping that is where you will end your life, you try all
your best to make it work. If it does not work, you begin to have
problems. Why I came back to the industry was because I found out that
my marriage was not working. My job
had nothing to do with my marriage. I knew my marriage was collapsing.
I just needed something to keep me going. Since I had so much love for
acting, I felt I should go back to what gave me so much happiness and
joy because I knew that my home was not giving me that joy I needed. I
felt it was not enough for me to sacrifice what would give me joy when
I knew the reason why I was sacrificing it was not being appreciated.
I am an emotional person: I am a very emotional person. I am
very loving but I am a one-way traffic kind of person. When I am in
love, I am fully in love with the person. I give my best to the
relationship. I am a very lovey-dovey kind of person and I love my man
to always be there for me. Sometimes, it seems as if I am
over-possessive. It is not that I am over possessive, I am just someone
who wants to give everything into the relationship and expects to get
the same back. When I do not get the same, I start
having problems with that person. That is why I find it difficult to
say I want to settle with a person. To me, marriage is a 50-50 thing.
If I put in my 50, you have to put in your 50. In a situation where you
cannot give me 50, then we are going to have a problem.
Rumours about me: I have cleared the air about so many things.
When I was growing up and I read some things about certain people, I
always used to say that there would be an element of truth in every
rumour. If they talkabout me and Muka Ray, I understand because we are
very close. In this society, when a man and a woman are very close,
people tend to think that they are dating. That is understandable, but
when it comes to the case of someone like Pasuma, it is very strange to
me. He never asked me out, we are friends but not as close as people
portray it. For crying out loud, we are not dating. I don’t have an
intention of dating him and I am sure that he does not too. He is my
friend, maybe because I have been to one or two of his events. He
respects me and I do too but just as a friend. He is a friend and a
brother; nothing beyond that. Muka Ray and I became very close and
working business partners. Myboyfriend understands that. He did not bring me into the industry.
He helped me because he was there before me. He helped me grow. I came
into the industry myself and I got into the Yoruba movie industry
through Alhaji Taiwo Hassan, Ogogo, in 2001. Bimbo Akintola brought me
into the industry when I joined AGN in 1998. About a year after I
joined the Yoruba movie industry, I met Muka who believed he could help
me build my career. I told him I wanted to be a producer and he told me
that it was good as he was also a producer. He said we could work hand
in glove and that is what we have been doing. Sometimes he works, I
contribute; I work and he contributes, both financially and physically.
I am not dating any politician. Can’t I afford a car and a house? I am
a producer, I produced about 13 movies and I’m not from a poor
background. Whatever it is that I have today, I started with my
father’s money. I am okay on my own. So nobody has to get me a car or a
house.
My father: I come from a very well-to-do family. My grand father
was very okay – Adekunle Ogunro. We are a very comfortable family. My
father was a very lively man who lived life to the fullest. People call
me daddy’s girl. My father ‘met money at home’, his parents were very
wealthy especially my grandmother. We lived in Obanikoro. My father was
someone who was so much into enjoying life that it cut his life short.
He did everything in excess -drinking, smoking, spending money and
having fun. I appreciate my dad for the fact that he was my father and
we were more like friends. He also had me when he was young.
He was 21 years old when he had my brother and 22 when he had me. He
lost his life at a very young age, that is why whatever I do, I don’t
get addicted. I don’t drink too much if I have to. I don’t smoke at
all, only when I am on set and I have to. I don’t do drugs, never have
and never will. When he died, there was some money left for us. His own
money. It was shared between my brother and I. It is that money I used
to start my life and business – a better apartment, a shop, I
travelled. My first car was from my father’s money.
About my boyfriend: He is a very caring person. It was not easy
for him. He was really after me because when men come, I shut them off.
I always put this defensive mechanism up. He was very patient and came
in a very soft manner. We started as friends and we became lovers. His
relationship with my kids is wonderful. My kids love him. He is a very
busy person but any little time he has, he comes to see them and takes
care of them. We have been together for a while. I keep my relationship
very private. I made it public at a time and it was very stressful.
When it is private, you enjoy it more because there are no third
parties. He understands the nature of my job. He understands where I am
coming from and I understand his too.
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