Fortunately for the fans and the media,
unfortunately for brand credibility and story substance, we now find
ourselves in an era where many celebrities will do almost anything, including
concocting the most absurd stories, to get cheap and easy publicity.
Matter of fact, with these guys, anything can happen and everything goes
when trying to get quick hype. After all, it is often said that ‘there
is no such thing as bad publicity’.
Some celebrities have been openly called terms like ‘fame-whore’, ‘spotlight addict’, etc, case in point, Yvonne Nelson, when she recently had a spat on micro-blogging site twitter with popular blogger, Linda Ikeji, over a fake story the latter claimed the former sent to her. Their dispute lingers.
Toke Makinwa, an OAP at Rhythm FM
and host of ‘Trending’ on Hip TV, recently stunned Nigerians when she
secretly got married, registry-style, to her long-time off-and-on
partner, fitness expert Maje Ayida, on Wednesday, January 15,
2014.
Ordinarily, there wouldn’t have been so much surprise and
subsequent discourse about the secret wedding if the pair, who had been
together for 12 years, hadn’t they recently ‘ended’ their relationship, a
news-story that was well reported and overly sensationalised by
bloggers and social media users.
Online platform BellaNaija
claimed to have been aware of the wedding but decided to keep mum about
it to respect the pair’s privacy. The site’s report went further: ’After
the much publicised split, insiders revealed to BN that Maje felt
miserable about the break-up. And to get his one and true love with him
forever, he ensured that he popped the big question and tied the knot as
soon as possible.’
Less than a week after the wedding,
Makinwa finally opened up on the secret marriage, painting on her
official blog, the supposed real picture.
‘On the 15th of January 2014, I got
married to my lover and best friend. It was such an intimate event; I
haven’t stopped apologising to family and friends who feel slighted that
they could not attend. I really did not wish to keep it a secret,
plus, it was such a huge surprise, I had no clue. Relationships are
tough, people go through the ups and downs and we as a couple have had
our share of that. Having a private moment was not to offend anyone; it
was God’s appointed time,’ Toke wrote.
Considering the fact that the ‘April by Kunbi’
wedding dress she wore for the ceremony was a perfect fit and even made
to her specification and size, inquisitive and suspicious minds would
be readily forgiven for doubting her claims and reading between the
lines of their break-up turned marriage story, all within a month. It
begs the question: was it a plot to stay trending or was it a genuine
natural occurrence which led them back into each other’s arms?
When asked about her disposition towards returning/keeping engagement rings on a program on Ebony Life TV,
Toke said she wouldn’t be returning hers any time soon, that she’d
instead make a chain out of it. Bloggers went haywire by amateurishly
reporting that she said she would never give up her ring. One website
had this headline: ‘I Worked So Hard for My Ring & I’m Never
Returning It’. It became another hit story in the Toke and Maje
affair/drama, bloggers copied and pasted, social media went amok, while
the gullible unsuspecting fans lapped it up, as usual.
On Friday, January 17, 2014, exactly two
days after her private wedding, a NET reporter interviewed Toke, and
when queried about the ‘supposed crash’ of her relationship with her
then ‘on again off again’ boyfriend, she replied, ‘You never know, anything can happen in the future, besides, feelings never go away’. Unbeknownst to the reporter, anything had already happened; Maje had already married the pretty lady.
When further asked about the ‘ring’
comment and if she had returned it or was ever going to, the host of
‘Toke’s moments’ maintained her poker face and told an outright lie, ‘Let’s just say maybe I made into a nice stud or earring, which you might be seeing on the red carpet soon.’ By nightfall the same day, the news of her secret marriage had spread like wildfire.
The genuineness of Toke’s letter to the
public was further questioned when on Tuesday, February 4, 2014, her
wedding dress designer, Olakunbi Oyelese, revealed on TV show Moments with Mo that Toke had actually called her three days before the wedding to ask her to design a wedding dress for her.
She said, ‘Toke called me up and said
“I’m getting married”.’ And when she asked for the date, Toke said, ‘In
three days’. This revelation is either entirely false or proof that Toke
deliberately misled (lied to) the public in her apology-letter.
What to believe begs the question: Did
Toke and Maje actually breakup, get back together and hurriedly marry?
Was the entire drama deliberately schemed to keep media frenzy alive and
fans talking about her? By not revealing the wedding to the NET
reporter, was Toke simply trying to keep the good news under wraps so as
not to jinx it with undue public scrutiny? But then, less than 12 hours
later, another blog broke the news to the world.
Maybe she just wanted to make the announcement on her own terms!
Many bloggers and websites, for want of
sensational news-stories, went as far as peddling several rumours and
concocted stories which they said led to the impromptu wedding. While
some attributed the hurried wedding to pressures from Maje’s family to
wed Toke once they supposedly found out that she was pregnant, others
say that the fear of falling into the single-mother category drove her
back into her hubby’s arms.
Toke has since come out to categorically
deny being pregnant. She said, ‘Having a baby is a precious gift from
God and when that time is right, I am sure, he will bless us with ours.’
But then, who knows what is true and what is not?
So much to ask, so much to wonder.
Sadly, that’s all we can do, for the real truth lies between Mr. &
Mrs. Ayida. Could it all be for the sake of publicity, a vital tool for
branding and celebrity positioning, or was it merely a true life story
that had a happy ending.
Again, who knows?
One certain fact is that there is more to the story than the pair has chosen to reveal!
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