There have been gory tales of domestic violence involving celebrities, some of which are still fresh in our memories. ABIOLA ALABA PETERS highlights some of the famous Nigerian female celebrities who fled their matrimonial homes due to incessant cases of domestic violence from their spouses

•Kate Henshaw

Kate Henshaw, Nollywood actress who recently premiered her TV series said she was once a victim of domestic violence. According to her, the relationship lasted for about three to four years. She didn’t know who she was then. She was so timid, and almost stopped smiling and laughing.

She said, “But there was this inner strength in me that helped me to rediscover myself. In fact, I had no self-esteem then. I wanted to change and be who I was not, based on the ill-treatment and violent nature of my man then.

“He was constantly abusing, beating and battering me inside the house and in public places. Funny enough, this violent lover of mine claimed to love me and wanted to marry me.

“I also wanted to marry him. I had started buying pots and other household items because I was in love. I wanted to settle down; I wanted to have my children with him. I kept thinking he would change, but he didn’t.

I tried my best to be everything to him, but finally I said enough was enough. During that turbulent period, I was ashamed. I couldn’t tell anybody. During one of the beatings, he broke my ankle.” That was the gory picture painted by the ex-Glo ambassador, Kate Henshaw.

The screen icon later backed out of the turbulent affair and tied the knot with a British lover years after, a union that recently hit the rocks after producing one child.

•Monalisa Chinda

After many years of being beaten mercilessly by her husband in a turbulent marriage that lasted five years, Glo ambassador and screen diva, Monalisa Chinda, vacated her marital sanctuary in 2009. “My failed marriage was far from normal. I will be foolish if I do not admit there were several cases of violence and assault on me.

At a point, due to the high level of violence, I started acting as if I was crazy. It was that bad. I carried on like a wounded lion for five years, thinking it would get better, but it was escalating and killing me gradually until I said the final ‘no.’ I left home on July 10, 2009.
“I was naive about love and got carried away.

Each time I sit down to look at the whole thing, I usually end up laughing. It was weird, funny and very silly. He had all the nice things to say,” she recalls of that experience. That was the poignant confession of the delectable Ikwerre, Rivers State-born star.

•Vivian Ejike

Her astonishing beauty and impeccable personality could not save her from the incessant beatings of the same man that vowed to love and cuddle her for life. Vivian Ejike, the producer of numerous hit flicks such as ‘Private Storm,’ ‘Silent Scandal,’ among others, chose to call it quits and run for dear life after many years of battery and assault.

In an interview the French graduate of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State once granted, she confessed: “I was married but I left that marriage because of domestic abuse.

Actually, it was my experience in domestic abuse and violence that prompted the movie, ‘Private Storm.’ But today, I am happily married again. So no regrets, everything happened for good.”

•Ayo Adesanya

Cross-over actress, Ayo Adesanya, is not found wanting on the list of celebrities whose marriages took a nose dive after unending assault from their partners.

The University of Ibadan graduate of Language and Communication Arts and star of Out of Bounds, Iru Oka, Most Wanted, among others was said to have endured her union until it dawned on her that the battering might never end. Her chaotic marriage to Goriola Hassan, a tattoo-loving movie producer, lasted about eight years.

“I packed out of the house in the middle of the night. I don’t think anyone in a relationship that is not bringing happiness should stay,” the busty actress with tatooes averred in an earlier interview.

• Hadiza Zaaki Azzay

The case of popular banker, Titilayo Arowolo, who was allegedly battered to death by her husband and the Club Q owner, Susan, who was also allegedly murdered by her lover were the direction Hadiza Zaaki’s marriage was heading before the union nose-dived.

With a voice dripping with pains, emotions and punctuated by throbbing flashbacks, the battered wife of Na Me Go Marry Am crooner, Zaaki Azzay, unearthed bitter memories of a turbulent eight-year relationship with her musician husband. “I’d fainted more than two times after being beaten mercilessly by Zaaki. I almost died in his hands.

In fact, since our troubled marriage, I have packed out of his house a record eight times. Zaaki has beaten me on the streets of Gbagada before.

He even bought out a cutlass which he said he would use to kill me,” she revealed.