Actress Ayo Adesanya has revealed that she endured a decade-long abusive relationship that led her to alcoholism.
Speaking in an interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo, shared on Saturday, Adesanya recounted how her ex-lover physically and emotionally abused her, sometimes beating her in public.
She admitted that fear of societal shame kept her from leaving the relationship.
“I became an alcoholic. But I couldn’t leave because of the shame that people would say I couldn’t keep a man,” she said.
“The guy beats you right now and the next minute he’s begging you. So it was something I was involved in for 10 good years.
“Thank God there was no blogger then. It was so bad. The man would always tell those who called me for jobs that I wasn’t available.
“The night I was going to leave, it was like magic. It was like 12 a.m. in the middle of the night. This is the first time I’ll be talking about it. But I have to talk about it.”
She further revealed that her ex-lover once threatened to gouge out her eyes with a knife and, out of jealousy, sent their one-year-old son away to Ibadan.
Adesanya said some of her colleagues, including actress Bimbo Akintola, were frustrated with her for staying in the relationship.
The actress previously addressed her past relationship in a 2012 interview, where she revealed that she left abruptly in the middle of the night.
In a 2013 interview, she clarified that she was never married to her ex-lover, Goriola Hassan, but they lived together and had a child.
“I was never married to Goriola Hassan. We lived together and had a child,” she said.
Their son, Niyi Iremitide, was reportedly 13 years old in 2021, indicating he was born around 2008.
The actress, who started her career in 1996 after completing the National Youth Service Scheme, made her television debut in Tunji Bamishigbin’s soap opera Palace.
She later transitioned into the Yoruba-language film industry, where she has acted, produced and directed numerous films.
Her versatility has allowed her to seamlessly feature in both Yoruba and English-language Nollywood productions.
