Nollywood actress Bunmi Nelson has given a raw account of her failed marriage, detailing years of lies, intense jealousy, physical fights and the career sacrifice that left her with deep regret.
Speaking on the TalktoB podcast hosted by Biola Adebayo, Nelson recounted how problems began even before the wedding.
“Our problems started after the pre-wedding pictures came out. While we were preparing for the registry at Ikoyi, we changed the date twice because he lied to me about where he was working. My elder sister sent someone to make enquiries about the guy and that was the first blow. He said he was working at a bank in Marina, he wasn’t working there,” she said.
She described her ex-husband as extremely jealous and temperamental. The fights escalated when she was about four months pregnant.
“The day I told myself I couldn’t take it anymore was when I went straight into the bar stand, and I took a glass and smashed it on his head. That was it. We stabbed each other that day, and I was pregnant. That was the height of it. I even locked the door and said we’d kill each other that day. I was done,” Nelson revealed.
The actress said she left the movie industry in 2016 because of him.
“I sacrificed a lot for him. He had already told me he didn’t want to see me in the movie industry anymore because his mom and sister didn’t like the idea of me being an actress. While we dated for seven years, he wasn’t an expressive person… He told me to leave the industry in 2016 around the time we were planning our wedding. That was why I left the industry then. I just wanted to start a family because I’m the type of person who loves family a lot.”
Nelson also spoke about other painful discoveries, including claims that a child presented as his late elder brother’s was actually his own, that he had already paid bride price for another woman in his village, and that another girl in Lagos was pregnant for him at the time. She added that tribal differences played a role, noting that his mother did not like her because she was not from their tribe even though both were from Kogi State.
Looking back, she admitted she ignored clear warning signs.
“My dad didn’t even want me to marry him. The handwriting was on the wall, but I refused to see it. I fell out with my family and friends because of him… I stupidly dated a man who didn’t have an apartment for 7 years even when I was a big actress.”
Nelson’s candid revelations have highlighted the heavy personal cost some actresses pay in the name of love and family, and the lasting regret of stepping away from a thriving career.