Nigerian singer, songwriter, actress, human right activist, social activist, journalist, politician, and former X Factor series judge, Onyeka Onwenu has opened up about her relationship for the first time.
The ‘One love’ & ‘Iyogogo’ crooner and actress revealed that she got married to a Yoruba Muslim in 1984 and the union produced two sons named Tijani Ogunlende and Ibrahim Ogunlende. Ibrahim later changed his name to Abraham.
Ms Onwenu, who has always kept her personal life private, made this revelation in her new memoir titled: ‘My Father’s Daughter’, although she revealed the name of her husband when she turned 50.
In the autobiography, the 68-year-old movie star revealed how she fell in love decades ago and how the union produced her two sons — Tijani and Ibrahim.
“In this book, I am, perhaps for the very first time, setting the records straight with respect to my connubial relationship. Yes, I was married. I married a man I fell in love with in 1984,” she said. “We have two children: Tijani and Ibrahim. (Ibrahim later changed the first letter of his name from I to A, and thus became Abraham.) My husband is Yoruba, and was a Muslim when we met.”
The autobiography also documents her life as a musician, activist, wife, mother, and politician as well as her formative contact with feminism.
The author shared how the war — between 1967 to 1970 — affected her life and her family.
She also documents her years in America, the conflicts that were the products of being a migrant, her experience with workplace sexual harassment, and her decision to quit her job at the UN.
“On the marriage front, she explores challenges women face and how she refused to shrink herself to accommodate her husband’s insecurities about her fame,” Expand Press Limited, her publishers, said while describing the book.
“It’s a memoir young persons must read. Women especially will glean numerous lessons from her life experience since successful women in Nigeria rarely share their story in a candid manner.”