Patience Ozokwor, the Nollywood veteran known as Mama G, has pulled the curtain back on the grind that built her name.
In an interview with Femi Babs TV, she said she once fried puff-puff and dressed chicken for sale at audition venues just to raise transport money for the next day.
“When I came into the industry, there was a time that I was selling buns and puff-puff. I was frying it. I would prepare chicken, dress it well, anyone you want to buy,” she said.
The hustle was not a side story. It was how she stayed in the room.
“I saw people going out to buy things. I would go to audition places; people would buy from me. I would see money for transport tomorrow. That is how I grew up.”
Ozokwor, now 67, refused to dress the climb as luck.
“I really struggled to get to where I am today. It wasn’t flowery; it wasn’t an easy thing. My life is full of spirituality, deep prayer. When others are sleeping, I am praying.”
She also spoke about marriage without the usual comparison game. Some wives, she said, press their husbands with other men’s gifts.
“This one bought a car for his wife, this one bought a house for his wife. What are you now doing?”
That was never her style.
“I didn’t wait for my husband. I knew the kind of person he was. I studied my husband. I buttoned up and tightened my belt, and I struggled.”
The load got heavier when her husband fell seriously ill.
“Incidentally, he was sick for so many years. It was a horrible sickness, diabetes and hypertension together, and it was a struggle.”
He later died in 2000 after a long illness. She has three biological children and several adopted ones.
The children did not float above the hardship.
“At a time, my children also grew up and they were helping me, so I also moved. They took care of the house. They too went through that. That is why they are doing well now.”