Funke Akindele’s best friend, Ariyike Akinbobola, a lawyer, is a presenter and producer with Spice TV. She is always as busy as a bee.
She recently talked about her hubby and how she has managed to save her marriage from crumbling (if only Funke had taken a cue from her friend, she’ll probably not be divorced today).
See excerpts below:
How has your husband being coping, given that you are always in the limelight?
I have not had any challenge with my husband concerning the kind of
job I do because I am very good at separating business from pleasure.
He’s also comfortable with the fact that I don’t get carried away by all
the media attention. When I’m on TV, I’m the Ariyike people see on TV
and once I get back home, I perform my wifely and motherly duties.
I know there are certain things I have to do and if they are not
done, and are done by somebody else, it’s going to cause a problem in my
home. If I have to cover an event and get home late, I call my husband.
I don’t wait for him to call and I start explaining the situation to
him. For every event I am attending, he is aware. Sometimes, he goes
with me, if it is an event he is interested in. Though he doesn’t work
in the entertainment industry, he understands the nature of my job. I’ve
discussed my dreams with him and he knows that being in the spotlight
comes with the job. He knows my work schedule and he even helps me to
strategise.
Also, he knows I like to protect him and our children
because I’m a very private person and he likes the fact that I don’t
open the doors of our home to just anybody. Communication is very
important in marriage, so I fill him in, in everything I do. My husband
is a nice man. Even if he doesn’t believe in your dreams, he will
support you and wouldn’t want to kill it.
It’s believed that when you start having kids, the spark in the marriage dies. How do you keep yours aglow?
(Laughs) Trust me; it is not only kids that kill the fire. There are
some that have not started having kids yet the fire has died. With
marriage, kids or no kids, you should marry your friend; somebody you
can laugh with, somebody whom you know that, through thick and thin or
through your fight, you can still communicate.
As I said earlier,
communication is the key because the way you were before you got married
is different after marriage. The chasing period is the sweetest. You
should still put yourself in the position, where you can still be
chased. But most time, it is not the same. How do I do it? I try to
re-in invent myself; I am still on top of my game. But for me, after two
kids, I have still got swag; I try to look nice, smell nice and be
yourself. Also, cook for him because food is very important.
When you are not working, how do you spend your time?
When I am not working, my mind is working. We always love to spend
the weekend together. My husband, my kids and I hang out at the Ikoyi
Club. We just enjoy ourselves; we swim, play and gist. I realize that
even when I am having fun, I am working. You see, my phone is like my
office. Because I write, I am a very creative person. So, it could be in
the middle of my food that I get an inspiration about something. In the
past, the words would be coming, but I would just say that I would
write when I was ready. But I just found out that when I got home, I
won’t remember a thing. So, now, as the inspiration comes and the words
start pouring in, I just take my phone and type. I just realize that
sometimes within three minutes, I would have typed about 600 words.
