Veteran Nollywood actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has addressed long-standing rumours of a feud between her and fellow screen icon Genevieve Nnaji, making it clear that there was never any real fight between them.
Speaking during an interview on Yanga FM, Omotola dismissed the popular belief that both actresses had been at loggerheads for years.
According to her, the idea of a rivalry was largely created by fans and the media.
“Na them start the quarrel before we know say we dey quarrel. So, we have to catch up with the quarrel. There was no quarrel,” she said.
When asked directly if there was ever a fight that lasted for many years before the release of the movie EJ, Omotola explained that people often misunderstand normal industry dynamics.
“People don’t need to be best friends, but we talked. Like behind film, we dey talk normally,” she stated.
She compared the situation to modern-day music industry rivalries, noting that Nollywood actresses experienced similar fan-driven comparisons long before it became common in Afrobeats.
“You know the same thing that they do with all these music stars, na we dem take start all those things that time. Na we be the practice that time,” Omotola said, adding that fans often pitched them against each other over who was more popular.
The actress said the so-called tension was simply a result of both stars being young, successful, and focused on their individual careers at the time.
“We were young, everybody dey do her own thing… you know how the industry is. Them go pitch you against this person, talk say na this one be the hottest girl, na that one be the hottest girl. So those kind tension go dey normally, but people they read am as other things.”
Omotola’s comments appear to put to rest years of speculation about bad blood between two of Nollywood’s biggest female stars, suggesting that the rivalry existed more in public imagination than in reality.