Queen Silekunola Naomi has announced her separation from the Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja II.
She made the announcement in a statement on Thursday.
The queen said she tried to make the union work but added that the Ooni’s public identity is at variance with “his true self”.
She wrote, “I did my best to endure and make it work; many times, I smiled through the struggle, but I have finally realised I had just one assignment, my son, and when God is done, He is done. He chose Saul to be king, and when He was done, He told the prophet Samuel I have moved on. Religion was never an issue between us; please refer to my interview on News Central TV. Instead, His Majesty has a picture he would love the world to see and perceive him as and another one which is his true self.”
She said that the announcement marks the “beginning of a new dawn” for her and she is no longer a “slave” to her “thoughts of perfection.”
“I, at this moment, announce that I shall no longer be referred to as wife to the Ooni of Ife or as Queen of Ile-Ife but as the Queen of the people and mother of my adorable Prince,” she said.
Silekunola said she was not leaving the monarch because of other women, adding “I was the only married wife to him.”
“The marriage was not an arranged one, as many have misconstrued,” she said.
Ooni was first married to Zaynab-Otiti Obanor in 2016. The marriage ended about a year later. Then he married Silekunola in 2018.
The first class monarch recently clashed with Omolara Olatubosun, mother of his daughter Princess Adeola Ogunwusi, about who was responsible for her upbringing.
