My marriage to Olufunmilayo wasn’t a secret — Patrick Doyle

Patrick Doyle QEDNG

Actor and broadcaster Patrick Doyle has said that his marriage to Olufunmilayo was not treated as a secret.

Patrick and Olufunmilayo got married at a registry in August 2022, about five years after he went separate ways with actress Ireti Doyle.

The actor did not speak about his wife Olufunmilayo publicly until March 2023.

Asked in a recent interview with QEDNG publisher Olumide Iyanda why that was so, the 63-year-old said: “…My business is my business. On the day of the registry, she posted it on one of her handles. I told her to go ahead but I said ‘I’m not posting.’

“So, it was not a secret. It was Mothering Sunday and I decided to pay tributes to her alongside the other women that had impacted my life. I was not announcing my marriage to her.”

Patrick affirmed what he said in his March 2023 Mothering Sunday post on Facebook that he has never been happier.

“Yes, I’ve never been happier in my life and I say it with all responsibilities. Do I not look like a happy man? Do I look my age? Am I not looking radiant? Have I looked this radiant in living memory? I’ve never been happier in my life.

“For anyone to think it was a slight on another person, that person must be very low on the food chain of humanity. How can you quarrel with a man’s happiness? Did I ever announce to you that I was unhappy? I said ‘I have never been this happy,’ it means ‘I’m at my happiest now.’ It means my past has been happy, now my present is happier, my future is going to be even happier,” he said.

The Oloture actor noted he would not speak ill of his former spouse Ireti though their union did not end on a happy note.

Patrick and Ireti got married in 2004, five years after his first wife died of sickle cell anaemia.

“Ireti is a first-class mother and provider for her children. She’s taking care of my daughter. How can I wish her ill? As far as mothers go, they don’t come any better. She provides 360 mothering care,” he said.