Popular actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has revealed how her father’s death affected her in ways she could not imagine.
In her exclusive interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwo she opened up on losing her father at 12.
She explained they never had time to bond like father and daughter did because she was shipped off to Kaduna at a tender age. She said she barely knew her death before his demise.
According to the mother of four, having to deal with such reality at that young age almost broke her as she became emotionless, attributing her fearlessness and confidence to the ‘life-changing’ incident.
Foisted to cater for her brothers and protect them from persons who would want to separate them, the mother of four revealed she almost turned to prostitution to ensure no one succeeded in tearing them apart from each other.
She noted just when they were about to write examinations in JSS3 into senior secondary, they came to her in school, informing her that she needed to leave for home in Lagos.
Speaking about her dad’s passing and the effect on her, she stated:
“I just started to see a crowd when I got to my street and I knew, definitely there’s been a death.
“So going through the crowd, the mental process till I got to my compound, and my compound was very big. And all these people, it was like a movie. I had to walk through their midst. And as you’re walking, everyone is turning to look at you, some wailing. Some looking in slow motion, I still remember the feeling.
“And I kept thinking, who’s going to greet me first? Who am I going to strike off the list? Then I saw my younger brothers. Then, I walked up the stairs and saw my mom. Then I froze because it now dawned on me that it was my dad.
“And so, I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t know if it was the guilt of me thinking it shouldn’t be him. I was too young to process it. Or the fact that I have truly missed him, and now that he’s dead; I won’t see him again? Or that I’m angry I didn’t get to spend enough time with him. He didn’t spend enough time with me because I was shipped to Kaduna. So, I didn’t know how I was feeling. And so, I was just there, numb. I was really numb.”
She added: “And now that I’m older, I think I understand it but then, I didn’t. So I just became emotionless and it has affected me till this day. There’s hardly anything you say that can move me. I am so confident of who I am that….’You no reach’.
“I mean, I’ve said it to presidents before who have invited me. ‘No, I don’t respect you’ because I don’t fear anybody.
“I know my dad was a very strong man. He died when I was twelve. And I think everything that I’ve been, positively or negatively was sore because of that, my father’s death. I don’t fear for my life to be honest.
“I think I probably would have become a prostitute today because I was that desperate. I got to a point and I said to myself, ‘I’d rather sell my body than for anyone to take my younger brothers apart’.”
