Nollywood actress Laide Bakare has delivered fresh and pointed comments about her long-running feud with colleague Eniola Badmus while also opening up on the painful details of her two failed marriages and a decade-long custody fight.
In a recent interview with Chude Jideonwo, the actress left little unsaid as she revisited both the personal and professional battles that have defined much of her public life.On the feud with Eniola Badmus, Laide recounted the moment their friendship ended.
“She said I am not her friend and I said I don’t want to be your friend if you don’t want to be mine,” she shared.
Looking back, she described their earlier days as warm and close. Eniola regularly visited her family home, knew her mother, and shared meals with them. That warmth has long since turned cold.
Laide dismissed Eniola’s recent public apology as insincere and driven by public relations advice rather than genuine regret.
“The apology wasn’t from her heart but from her PR. Maybe they told her, ‘She is going low; you don’t go lower; be polished, put up something peacefully,’” she said.
She then took a direct swipe at her former friend’s appearance.
“Take off her makeup and filter and even with the weight loss, she isn’t fine. Even with the weight and everything, she still cannot.”
The latest comments come weeks after the feud reignited when Eniola reacted with a visible change in expression and a hiss when Laide’s name was mentioned during an appearance on Isbae U’s podcast. Laide had responded by calling her an ingrate and claiming she once supported her financially at a time when others in the industry would not cast her because of her size. Eniola later apologised and said she chose peace, but Laide publicly labelled the apology fake.
In the same interview, Laide turned to her personal life and the struggles that followed her marriages. She revealed that her first husband felt threatened by her growing financial independence. After a trip to the United States, he told her not to bring that version of herself back into the home.
“I travelled to the US, and when I came back, he said, ‘Don’t bring that back to the house.’ My first husband was threatened by me being financially free,” she explained.
Her second marriage has left an even longer shadow. Laide has been locked in a custody battle for her two sons for the past ten years. She said she once gained custody only to later be denied access. She also claimed that the woman who is now her ex-husband’s wife used to hide from her whenever her name was mentioned while she was still in the relationship.
“When I used to be with me, the woman was just his girlfriend. A girlfriend that was hiding from me, and whenever she heard my name, she would run,” Laide recalled.
Just a month earlier, the actress had publicly raised concerns about the welfare of her sons while they stayed with their father and his wife, alleging mistreatment and appealing for greater access and protection. The battle continues to weigh heavily on her.
Laide Bakare has three children. Her first relationship produced a daughter named Simi, while her second marriage to Alhaji Mutairu Atanda Orilowo produced two sons. The second union ended amid serious challenges, including reports that her then-husband faced EFCC scrutiny.