Increasingly, and in greater numbers, Nigerian female and male celebrities are breaking the barriers by marrying non-Nigerian men and women. In droves, they are marrying Caribbean nationals, White-Americans and African-Americans.
Below is a carefully selected list of actresses who against all odds found love in the arms of white men and equally embraced their foreign cultures.
Uche Jombo and Kenney Rodriguez
(American-Puerto Rican born)
Uche Jumbo is unarguably one of the A-list actresses currently rocking the Nigerian motion picture industry globally known as Nollywood. Aside her huge success as an actress, she is also a thriving movie producer with close to ten flicks to her credit.
It is just over a year since the Abiriba, Abia-State-born thespian walked down the aisle with her American-Puerto Rican born husband, Kenny Rodriguez, in a low-key wedding that took place on the shores of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean.
The weeding, which held precisely on May 16, 2012 took many of her teeming fans by surprise. Since they both signed the dotted lines, the couple has been living happily ever after.
A visibly overjoyed Rodriguez, in an interview narrated how he met and fell in love with his darling wife, Uche.
Hear him, “We got to know each other through a friend who happens to be a business partner but it took some few months and persuasion before she finally agreed to marry me because I told her point blank that I want to marry her. She paused and never said anything, after much conviction, she threw in the towel. My wife is beautiful, gorgeous, loving, caring, amiable and a good cook. Her smiles keep me going and I’m always happy whenever she is around me,” love-struck Rodriguez added.
Anita Hogan and Ted Mark (Dutch)
Indeed, it was a great turning point for the dark-skinned actress amid the nude pictures scandal that almost cost her life.
In fact, it was a shocking development that instantly wrecked the career of the sensational actress, who even threatened to commit suicide.
Fortunately for her, the aged man at the centre of the scandalous pictures eventually walked her down the aisle.
Although, Mr. Ted Mark had once dabbled into marriage, which produced three grown up kids, it wasn’t a hitch for the talented actress who also had gone ahead to make a beautiful family with her Dutch husband with two lovely kids.
Wondering how she copes being married to a foreigner who is almost twice her age? She was quick to allay any fear of possible breakup.
According to her, “I have learnt to speak Dutch. I never believed I would end up with a white guy. It just happened. I am attracted to his openness and the fact that he is a very rugged man. We started as friends, then got closer and we later got married. He is also a very amazing father, I admire the way he cares for his kids. I am very grateful to God for him. He was once married and the union produced three children who are all grown up now”, she once disclosed in an interview.
Chioma and Andrew Toplis (British)
However, she debunked the incessant rumours trailing her marriage during a recent exclusive interview with Entertainment Express when she said, “Not for me, no matter how they talk about it, it will never happen. Many people find it hard to believe me when I tell them that since I got married to him for close to 18 years now I have never cooked for him. He’s the one that cooks. It was even rumoured that I used juju to hold the man and I would say, “thank God the ‘juju’ is working.” Each time my cousins come to my house they would be feeling uncomfortable to see me sitting while my husband cooks for me. Yet, I can’t even remember quarreling with my husband any day,” she asserted.
Since the Abia State born actress came to limelight after settling down with Andrew Toplis, a UK born Engineer, she has been battling with allegations of unstable marriage.
But the big, bold and beautiful mother of three (two girls and a boy) with a towering height is never tired of defending her home, which she described as the type any woman would dream of.
How she is coping with foreign in-laws? Hear her, “I don’t have any problem with his family. My mother-in-law died when I had my daughter in 1998 and my father-in-law also died four years ago. They used to come and stay with us during Christmas period. I never had any problem with them before they died. My husband has only one sister who lives in Cyprus.
Ufuoma Ejenabor and Steve
McDermott (European)
Today, the proud parents are gradually building a family after the birth of their baby boy, christened, Isio Jared McDermott.
While happily recalling how they met and fell in the love, charming Ufuoma said; “We have a mutual friend; they both work as advertisers. I met his friend while I was filming Everything It Takes for Wale Adenuga. There was a particular day we went out for drinks and my husband who was his friend was with them. We hung out, became friends, started spending time with each other and started to feel very comfortable with each other.”
She further said, “It wasn’t anything planned, it just happened and I’m glad it did because my husband is a wonderful person. He has a good heart and that is the most important thing for me.”
For the Delta State born actress, coping with her in-laws and adjusting to foreign culture were much easier than she had thought and made to believe.
The Queen of My Heart actress said, “The first time I spoke to his mum on the phone, I said “Hello Ma” and she said “No don’t call me that, call me Jean. I had to say to her “Sorry Ma, you might not like this but your name right now is Mummy”. He has been in Nigeria for over 10 years but there are still some things he is trying to adjust to. I cannot honestly tell you that we’ve broken down every barrier of culture shock, but somehow we’ve tried to find our own meeting point to make sure that everything is balanced out.”
The couple has been living happily ever since.
When recently asked how she copes, she said “I have been married since 2005. I think it is just marrying your best friend more than anything.
“A man that will understand you; a man that will support you in good and bad times. My husband is my best friend.
The dark and beautiful model maintains that her marriage has been wonderful because she married her best friend even though it is an interracial marriage.
Regina Askia and Rudy Williams (American)
The union shocked a lot of her colleagues and admirers because the news of her white wedding, which was witnessed by a selected crowd, was quite unexpected, as it came on the heels of her controversial break-up with an Igbo big boy, Charles Orie.
And while cynics simply chose not to give that marriage a chance of being a till death-do-us-apart affair, Regina again made a big statement that her marriage was for real, when she simply relocated to America to live full time with her American husband. She also took along with her Stephanie, her first daughter whom she had for her ex French lover, Patrick.
Now working as a registered nurse, Regina who is still looking very radiant and beautiful had two kids with Ruddy; a boy and a girl. Although, insiders are alleging that the once beautiful union has crashed.
Von Den Driesch (German)
Their marriage may come as a surprise to many close watchers of the entertainment industry who thought marriage was not on the agenda for the ambitious pretty-looking entertainer who seems to have the world at her feet.
Albeit, Chioma is relatively unknown in some circles but was in the spotlight years back as one of the housemates of the one-off reality TV show, Koko Mansion.
Her slender frame later lured her into modeling; a profession she is also passionate about. She even described her biggest challenge in life as her desire to prove to those fashion organizers who hurt her ego a few years ago by telling her she wasn’t fit for runway modeling and instead concentrate her energy on her ambition to become a successful musician.
Ashionye Ugboh-Raccah
In a recent interview talked about her decision to marry her friend of 11 years.
What would you say marriage have done for you?
Marriage have matured me. As a single woman, there were certain things I did that I can’ t do now. Marriage and the birth of my child have made me a lot more patient and matured person. I am a woman now.
There are some things that I look at now as a wife and a mother, and I ignore. But back then, I wasn’t matured enough and I thought I was. I have been matured for over three years now.
How did you meet your husband?
I met my husband in 2001, we have known each other for over 11years. We met here, in Lagos.
Is it a new trend where Nollywood stars are falling for the ‘Oyinbos’?
This is not about going for the “Oyinbo’s” or the ‘Oyinbos’ coming for us. It’s about the relationship. It’ s not a matter of whether your husband is black or white. It depends on the relationship you have built over the years with him.
It depends on a lot of of things. And by the way, how many Nollywod actresses are married to the Oyinbos?
I don’t see colour as an individual in marriage. My husband doesn’t see colour either. I believe that the actresses that you are referring to, and their husbands don’t see colour too. That’s why they decided to marry. The world is one colour to me, but don’t ask me which colour.
You might see my husband as a white man, but I don’t see him that way. After all, my husband was born in Kano and he speaks Hausa fluently. He is a Nigerian as much as you are a Nigerian too. So, I don’t see colour in our marriage.
What was the reaction of your parents when you introduced him to you?
There was no opposition. My dad knew I have been in a relationship with him for awhile. So, there was no reason for him to oppose the marriage. He was very happy to welcome another son-in-law into our family. The relationship between my husband and my father was fantastic.
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