With four
beautiful children and a rock-solid marriage, sexy actress, Omotola
Jalaide- Ekeinde, is a success story, especially in an area where some of
her contemporaries and colleagues have failed miserably – the
matrimonial department .She is one of the few actresses who have
successfully combined the rigors and excruciating schedule of acting
while keeping the home front stable and happy.
She has
been married to her pilot husband – Mr. Ekeinde-for over a decade, and
the union is still defined by love and deep feeling of affection. Not
for her has been the usual drama of rumored infidelity and emotional
backstabbing that seem to define relationships and marriages in
Nollywood. Of all the scoops and tips on Nollywood’s shenanigans that we
are daily deluged with, none has ever been linked to Omotola.
When the
sexy actress visited New York sometime ago, and, at a reception I had
arranged for her at the TROPICAL GRILL Restaurant/Lounge York, I
informed her that I would love to have an honest and candid interview
with her, with the sole purpose of finding out what has been the source
of her martial success and the challenges she may have faced remaining
true to her values, and vows in an industry where such vows are
sacrificed at the altar of conspicuous consumption edged on by the rich
and the powerful who regard popular actresses as trophy acquisitions.
I told
Omotola that my interview with her was going to be decidedly different –
it was going to dwell primarily on her personal life and nothing else –
a declaration she had enthusiastically agreed to. “Thank God it is
going to be different from all those hackneyed and generic line of
questionnaire I have been used to”, she told me as we sat in her hotel
room.
I started
by asking her what had been the secret of her success in marriage. “I
have been favored by the Lord”, she began. “I am truly blessed to have
been married to one-of-a-kind husband who appreciates what I do,
encourages me to excel in my craft. Let me tell you this: I take my
marriage very seriously. If you treat your marriage with levity and
careless abandon, you will reap the reward for such bad behavior. My
husband is an angel, brought by God to my life, and it has been a
blessing having him as my husband.”
As one of
the most desirable and sexy actresses in Nollywood and knowing how
persistent men of power and influence can get in wanting to have
celebrities as trophy lovers, I asked Omotola if she had received
material things from men who ran after her. “Sure, I have received lots
of goodies from my male admirers,”she deadpanned. So what gives – what
is the qui pro-quo? “Nothing”, she replied. “I do not give anything in
return. I always tell them that I am married and would not compromise my
martial vows. If after making that point clear, they still continue to
shower me with gifts, maybe believing that something will break in the
future, then I cannot help them.”
Asked if
she had ever met men that she genuinely took a liking to, and was
tempted to sacrifice her marital vows, she answered: “Absolutely. I have
been tempted many times to cheat on my husband by men I really liked.
But when you think of what you stand to lose, the destruction of all you
have labored to build, when you weigh all the options, you are left to
conclude that it is not worth the trouble. I know some women will find
this somewhat objectionable, but if they want to be truthful to
themselves, they will agree with me that, as married women, we have all
faced moments that I have just described.”
Do you
feel emotionally detached as a result of many years of marriage or, put
differently, has your passion for your husband cooled with time?, I
asked. “Of course, it has”, she said matter-of-factly. “Which married
woman who has been with her husband for years will, in her true state,
tell you that the feeling has remained the same as it was the first time
or the first year she met her husband? It is bound
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