How Nollywood’s Favourite Couple Became Total Strangers

Yvonne Jegede came into our collective consciousness when she appeared as one of the vixens on 2face’s “African Queen” video in 2004.

She went on some sort of hiatus for a while and then came back into the scene, but this time as a Nollywood actress. In a short while, she became a popular face in movies, warming herself into the hearts of Nigerians as a pretty, next-door-girl every average Nigerian lady could relate with.

When it became known that she was getting married, it was barely days to the D day. She had kept it all under wraps. Those that didn’t already love her fell hard on their noses for her because she really did cut her coats according to her size. The wedding was as simple as Nigerian weddings can get.

Yvonne’s happiness was so apparent and contagious. And she was obviously in love with her actor husband Kunle Fawole who is the son of late Nollywood veteran Bukky Ajayi. Kunle had spent some time in the Nigerian music space as rapper Abounce. He had since dropped the microphone and focused on acting. Yvonne and Kunle had been friends for a while and their energy shone through in the moments they were captured together.

Before Kunle proposed to Yvonne in August 2016, they had been in a relationship that spanned over 10 years. On the 4th of February 2017, that relationship finally pulled up at the legal dockyard as the two got married at a traditional ceremony attended by some friends and colleagues in Surulere, Lagos. Four days after that, they signed on the dotted lines of a marriage certificate at the Federal Marriage Registry, Ikoyi Lagos.

After the festivities, Yvonne took to her Instagram page to say how appreciative she was of everyone who supported her through her days of joy.

Uneventful months sped past, and then in the early hours of Friday, November 2, Yvonne announced the birth of their son with a now-deleted post on Instagram.

At the child’s dedication, Kunle and Yvonne’s wedding rings were conspicuously absent from all her posts. To arouse a few suspicions further, Kunle also completely ignored the celebration on his Instagram handle and rather posted a meme on the same day. As you would expect of Nigerians, stories of doom started drizzling down like unwanted rain on a busy day. Rumours claiming that these two love birds had gone their separate ways started trickling in. The bane of it all was that the baby allegedly didn’t belong to Kunle. According to unconfirmed murmurs, months after Yvonne got pregnant, news reached Abounce that he wasn’t the one who got her pregnant.

After a lot of speculations with the couple keeping mute, Yvonne finally granted Pulse.ng an exclusive interview, confirming reports of separation and answering questions about her failed marriage. Yvonne admitted that the marriage started cracking months after she got pregnant, stating that Kunle literally checked out of the entire pregnancy journey. She then went ahead to address the large elephant in the room, stating categorically that Kunle Fawole is well aware that he is the father of their son.

She also said in another interview that she tried to reach out to Kunle because she felt he knew Xavier was his son. She also questioned the sources where he heard that he was not the father of their son, saying he is 100% sure he is his son.

The couple, according to Yvonne who is the only party who has spoken to the press since their split, did not speak for three weeks in the lead up to their eventual split. And since then, both parties whose friendship and seeming connection was the envy of many have barely spoken to each other. Kunle told me when I put a call through to him last week that he has not spoken to the press since the split and that decision remains unchanged. He said, “She’s the one granting all the interviews and speaking. Try reaching out to her. I am saying nothing.”

Efforts to reach out to Yvonne to find out if there is even a faint possibility, two years after, of the two of them, coming back together proved unsuccessful.

Asides from the Xavier, a product of their wedding, Nollywood’s favourite couple at a point has now become two complete strangers.