It is no longer news that top
actress Ini Edo’s marriage to Philips Ehiagwina has collapsed. So much has been
written mostly by writers relying on third party sources as to why the marriage
failed.
The widely speculated reason has
been the issue of infidelity that the husband alleged.
But was that the main reason the
couple went their separate ways? According to a source close to the couple and
was there when the romance started in 2008, and remained close to the now
divorced couple, the media has been scratching the surface of what indeed was a
story of irreconciliable differences the actress endured for over six years of
her marriage to her estranged husband; and why she gave her all to sustain the
marriage. It is a story as told by an insider who knew the couple way back from
New York, where Philips once lived, before moving to Texas, then to Atlanta and
now Ghana.
“I think Ini Edo was badly in love.
Philips was a charmer and, as a human being and deeply in love, she followed
her heart. It is so sad that a woman blessed with such a good heart could be
treated in such a hurtful manner. Most people may not know, but Ini Edo is a
dedicated and totally committed spouse any man could hope to have. That’s why
she endured all she did, for six years without letting the world know the pain
she was going through in her marriage,” the source stated. “Most people do not
know that Ini Edo gave up a lot of acting jobs to be with her husband in
America and, unlike the widely peddled story that the actress was involved in
romantic relationships with other men, for the six years that Ini was married
to Philips, she never cheated on him. Ini Edo adored and loved Philips;
she was very fond of him, cooked his meals personally, and was practically
splitting her time between two continents, all in her efforts to be a good
wife.
“ There is no doubt that Ini was
madly in love with her ex-husband. In a 2009 interview she had with my
newspaper, The Diasporan Star in New York, she effusively declared her fidelity
to Phillips and debunked all the stories of her liaisons with other men. “I am
usually at a loss when I read stories about my sexual relationships with
phantom figures and personalities. It is really astonishing when people just
manufacture stories, give them legs and let them fly when they know the stories
are absolutely false,” she had said.
“It is perfectly legitimate for men
to have designs and desires on stars. I was recently voted by the public as
Nollywood’s Sexiest Actress. So it comes with the territory that men would want
to date me. The question then becomes: do you fall prey to every man that comes
your way? The answer is absolutely “no”. I was raised well by my parents and I
have always been a one-man lady. All the sexual shenanigans that the media have
associated me with are all false. The problem with our journalists is that if
they saw you at a coffee shop with a man – just any man – even if that man is
your cousin or brother, they will automatically assume that that is your new
lover, and without asking questions, will rush to publish that you were seen at
a coffee shop with a new lover.
“I have lost count of the number of
such innocent outings with family members, friends that the media misconstrued
that I was dating. What the media failed to understand was that I had not
allowed stardom and celebrity to becloud my values. What they did not realize
was that I wanted to be married, and start a family, and that the notion that I
was some kind of a sexually crazed hormone raging young woman, was totally
false and a bad reading of who I am.
“Did I have friends in the past? Of
course, just like any other young and single woman out there, I had friends.
Did that make me an out-of control sexual goddess? Absolutely not! It has been
very painful for me each time I read all the stories written about me, stuffs
that are patently false. I have, however, come to accept it as part of the
price you pay for stardom. I just wished they could do a little investigation
before rushing to publish.
“One story that pained me a lot is
the notion that I snatched Philips from his ex-wife – Ruth Okoro – while she
was recuperating from cancer treatment. Nothing could be further from the
truth. The ex-wife said I was callous and mean-spirited to have done so.
Initially, I had wanted to ignore what she had said about me. But I would like
to use this medium to state that I did not take Philips from Ruth Okoro.
No comments:
Post a Comment