Jim Iyke, a seasoned Nollywood actor, has spoken out about his two failed marriage and the reasons why his wife had left him despite being a wonderful father to his three children.
Speaking in a recent interview with popular media personality Chude Jideowo, the actor blamed himself for his failed marriages.
He said: “I have had a failed marriage but nobody knows that. I have three kids. I caused my marriage to fail. I am not the type that would blame anybody for my mistakes. There is a saying, ‘to boss up, own up’, There is a part of me that would take the easier route out.
“Anytime I did anything mediocre in my life, I always did it when I was emotional because I am extremely proficient in being deliberate and being strategic about everything I do.
“Every time I failed; it was because I got emotional. I became mediocre then I appeal to the smaller man in me and the part that was not emotionally intelligent.
“When I lost my mother, I could not find my feet for years. There was a lifestyle, spiritual connection that I lost. It took them 72 hours to tell me that I had lost my mother. I just got out of an interview in London.
There is always that one person in the family that is a deliverer of bad news. The person who does that in our family said he would not break the news to me because there is a great chance I would not make it.”
On how his mother’s death affected his relationship with his wife and son, the veteran actor said, “Just when I was getting over it, my woman was pregnant with my first son.
“I had a quiet space, there was nobody around me to take care of me anymore. There was nothing all of a sudden and the grief hit me. The loss hit me and I could not sleep for days. I was irritated and was not the loving man she met.
I am a goofball, forget the perception out there. I am the prankster of the family and the guy that starts the laugh at the most serious issue. They don’t even invite me to family meetings because I start with a joke then my father calls me to order.
“I lost my sense of humour, the lion in me and the leader in me. I just gave myself to the elements, so she suffered for that. I became an obsessive dad. I took everything in me to my son.
I was changing diapers; I was the proper stay-home dad. I took everything to him and left her behind. I took all my love and attention and invested it in my son and left her behind. I was an excellent father and a woeful husband. They are white, they are not built like us.
“After a while, she said, I can’t find who I married. Then we parted as friends. I told her, ‘I am here but I am not here. There is no presence here. I don’t know what it would take me to heal and bring myself back here but if you want to wait for me I will appreciate it and if you can’t I will understand’. She said she can’t,” Jim Iyke added.
