Nollywood actress Juliana Olayode has opened up in a deeply personal interview on the WithChude podcast about the repeated sexual abuse she endured as a child and how trauma from a manipulative pastor later damaged her relationship with senior colleague Funke Akindele. The actress, best known as Toyo Baby from Jenifa’s Diary, shared harrowing details of her early life while explaining the years she spent praying for the restoration of that friendship.
Olayode stated that the abuse began when she was just five years old and continued until she turned ten.
“I have been sexually abused since I was 5 by multiple men whom I called uncles. It happened until I was 10 years old. At this stage my mom and dad separated despite the many times I kept asking God to bring them together.”
She specifically named her music teacher as one of the perpetrators.
“I was abused by my music teacher and also disvirgined by him.”
After her parents’ separation, her stepmother subjected her and her brother to extreme hardship, forcing them to hawk goods without their father’s knowledge.
“My stepmother took me through hell, forcing me and my brother to hawk without my father’s knowledge. We even had to pretend to be blind to meet the days ticket. Not until one day my own mother saw my brother hawking on the road and she was in disbelief.”
The actress also described manipulation by a church pastor when she was 16.
“The church I got into as at 16yrs, the pastor manipulated me deeply, took over my social media account and even ruined my upcoming marriage, destroyed my professional relationships including that with funke Akindele.”
This interference from the pastor contributed directly to the strain in her relationship with Funke Akindele. In 2017, Olayode and Akindele fell out for reasons that were never fully made public at the time. Olayode rose to fame after landing the lead role in Akindele’s Jenifa’s Diary, but the friendship later fractured.
During the podcast, Olayode revealed that for years she prayed specifically for the restoration of their personal bond rather than any professional opportunity.
“I am so grateful to God that we are besties again. All those years, I kept saying to God in my prayers, requests that He should restore our friendship. Like, I don’t care if I don’t get to work with her on her project again. I don’t even want it; what I want is to be able to go to her house freely, laugh with her, see her, and greet her.”
She emphasised that her prayers were focused on the personal relationship “because she has been there for me.” Olayode expressed deep gratitude to Akindele for showing grace.
“I want to thank Aunty Funke for listening and showing me grace. I don’t care if I never get to act with her again. I just want that relationsh4ip.”
Since their reconciliation in May 2023, when Olayode issued a public apology admitting she had been misled, the two actresses have grown extremely close. The bond extends beyond work; Olayode has once praised Akindele for extraordinary acts of kindness, including emptying her account to fund life-saving fibroid surgery for Olayode’s mother.