Nollywood has never been short of public opinions on marriage. From veterans who have stayed through illness to stars who say the institution is simply not for them, actors and actresses keep returning to the same questions: who it serves, what it costs, and when it is time to leave.
Uzor Arukwe: Marriage is more tasking for women
In an October 16, 2026 interview on the In My Opinion podcast, actor Uzor Arukwe said he has never been a strong advocate for marriage because the demands fall more heavily on women.
“I’ve never really been an advocate of marriage because I feel like it’s more tasking for the woman. She’s the one that bears the child. She takes your last name. A lot of things happen,” he said.
He added that society is slowly catching up.
“So, I feel society is now beginning to catch on to the fact that marriage doesn’t define or make a woman.”
Growing up, he recalled, unmarried women in their late twenties or thirties faced constant questions and comparisons. Now, he has met women who do not want children at all. Arukwe is himself married to Barbara Boyd-Arukwe and has two daughters.
Yul Edochie: Walk away if it stops working
Yul Edochie has been consistent that marriage should not be treated as a do-or-die affair. In a September 2, 2023 Facebook post, issued after colleague Bolanle Ninalowo announced his separation, Edochie wrote that there is no proven formula for success.
“Marriage is a beautiful thing, don’t let anyone discourage you. If your dream is to get married, go ahead and achieve your dream,” he said.
He noted that a couple can date for ten years and still divorce, or meet and build something lasting.
“Marriage is also not a do-or-die affair. Try your best to make it work, if it doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world. Wish yourselves well and move on.”
Uche Ogbodo: Know your worth and leave if needs are not met
In an October 17, 2026 interview with Saturday Beats, actress Uche Ogbodo told women in unhappy marriages to stop suffering in silence.
“First, you have to know who you are as a woman, know your worth, what you want and also love yourself enough. If you love yourself enough and know what your deal-breaker is in a relationship, and your wants and needs are not being met, then what are you doing in that relationship? I am not an advocate for suffering and smiling. If it is not working, you don’t have to die there,” she said.
She also pushed for mutual fidelity.
“I am an advocate for 50-50 in marriage. If you want me to be faithful to you, stay faithful to me. You just want (sexual) satisfaction? It’s a desire that you can control. You can control yourself; you are not an animal. Why can’t men stay the same? Why do men always make excuses for their failure?”
She added that abuse is not only physical.
“When you start to make a woman feel less of herself, you are abusing her mentally and psychologically.”
Olu Michaels: Not interested in marriage or children
In a November 30, 2019 interview, actor and producer Olu Michaels said he had no intention of marrying or having children.
“I’m not married, and I don’t intend to. Truth be told, I’m scared of marriage and I don’t think I will ever get married,” he said.
He once wanted children but later decided against it.
“Why I said it’s too late for having children is that I am a workaholic and I don’t like a situation where I would want to sleep and then a baby starts crying.”
His parents had begged him to marry, he said, but he refused.
Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde: We don’t carry marriage on the head
Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, married to Captain Matthew Ekeinde since 1996, has described a deliberately light approach. In an interview with Chude Jideonwo, she said the couple do not treat the title as sacred.
“It’s easy for us to relate because he knows who I am and what I stand for. Whenever we have issues, we discuss it because we are partners in life. But we don’t carry this husband-and-wife thing on our head like it’s a sacred thing that you don’t touch. It’s not that serious. We are partners, and I have a journey, and I choose to take that journey with you,” she said.
She has also said there are days she wakes up and cannot remember why she chose him, but she stays because of a conscious choice and faith rather than constant romantic feeling.
Joke Silva: Friendship through vulnerability
Joke Silva married Olu Jacobs in 1985 despite a roughly 20-year age gap. She has said she did it because she was in love with him. Over the years the relationship shifted from romance and deep friendship into caregiving after Jacobs was diagnosed with dementia with Lewy bodies.
In a 2023 interview with Nancy Isime, Silva said:
“It has not been easy… There was a point of acceptance for me that everything happening is reality and it is like the person I married, 80 percent of the time is no longer there.”
She described the man she married as “practically my best friend” and an “amazing husband” when he was well.
“So in this journey of dementia now, is like I am looking after my father. The husband I knew is no more and there for me but this man that is here is someone I still love.”
She has said that reaching acceptance made the new season easier to walk through.
Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD): Faithfulness is hard in this line of work
RMD, married to Jumobi Adegbesan since 2000, has spoken candidly about the pressures of fidelity for entertainers. On Teju Babyface’s podcast he said:
“Being faithful in marriage is hard because if you are in the kind of line of work that we are in it is very hard because let’s face it every one of us that is married, we had a target. I mean, look at how women are. How can you escape? Women are Delilah, they are like Jezebel. You have to get to a point where your wife understands what she is up against. So there has to be harmony.”
He has also credited the length of his current marriage to keeping much of their private life away from constant public judgment, though the strongest on-record statement remains the one about the difficulty of faithfulness and the need for a wife who understands the industry’s temptations.
Mercy Johnson-Okojie: Preferences, honesty and forgiveness
Mercy Johnson has spoken about balancing career and home by ranking priorities. In a 2019 BBC Pidgin interview she said:
“I use scale of preference. I live my life based on what is more important and that’s how I follow it.”
In other conversations she has stressed honesty and forgiveness. She has described telling her husband the full truth even when it was painful, and noted that “one thing that every marriage needs would be forgiveness… Offenses always come but your ability to look past them… is what makes you move from one day to the next.”
She has also said different marriages have different ethics that work for them.