Why my marriage crashed - Actor Emmanuel Ikubese
Actor and filmmaker Emmanuel Ikubese has opened up about his failed marriage to celebrity makeup artist Anita Adetoye, describing it as a personal blow that forced him to re-evaluate his
Actor and filmmaker Emmanuel Ikubese has opened up about his failed marriage to celebrity makeup artist Anita Adetoye, describing it as a personal blow that forced him to re-evaluate his identity and direction.
The couple married in March 2020 in a high-profile ceremony that drew national attention.
By February 2021, reports of a split emerged after Ikubese deleted wedding photos from his Instagram and both parties unfollowed each other online.
Speaking on the Archives of Becoming Podcast, Ikubese said the end of the marriage felt like a major personal loss.
He explained that he had always desired a stable family life and felt he had failed when the marriage ended.
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Ikubese noted that the public nature of their wedding made the outcome harder to process, leaving him feeling exposed and disappointed in himself.
According to him, the experience pushed him to reflect on his identity, describing the breakup as a turning point that forced him to reconnect with God for answers.
He added that he could only speak from his own perspective, not his former partner’s.
The actor said the breakup caused deep emotional pain and changed how he views life.
He added that the marriage collapse felt like a reset orchestrated by God after years of living without a clear purpose.
He explained that despite public recognition at the time, he had not found himself or understood his purpose in the industry.
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He said fame felt good, but he did not struggle for it, and he was carrying unresolved issues.
The actor described 2020 not as the start of his problems, but as the crash.
He said, “I got married in 2020, but it didn't work out, and that was the blow for me. It was an identity thing. If you don’t find your identity, you always find yourself in moments like this. And for me, everything leading up to who I was from Kenya felt like that put me on the highway. And God needed a reset, and that was the reset for me.
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“I’d always desired a family, and now I had gotten it. Anyone who knows me knows I’m very family-oriented, and for the very first time in my life, that made me feel like a failure. The wedding I had was very high-profile. It was one of the biggest weddings in Nigeria at the time, and I just felt like I’d failed.
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“It changed my life. It changed how I see life. It changed who I am, literally, because it felt like I had to go back to God, and I said, “Okay, God, where did I miss this?” And I thank God because it just felt like God was waiting for me.
“It’s like God trying to call your attention for a very long time, right, and now he’s like, okay, finally I get your attention, right, and I thank God that I took that to him, but it took me on a journey that was really painful.
“I was always a lost Emmanuel. It felt like I was this very popular person. It felt like the world was celebrating me. But you see, the world was celebrating someone who had not even found himself.
“I had not found myself. I didn’t even understand why I was in the industry. Fame just felt good, you know. I didn’t struggle for it. And I was living that life, doing everything. I didn’t understand the hurts that carried along the line. Everything didn’t start in 2020. 2020 was just a crash.”
