Ali Baba: How I fathered triplets at 59

Legendary stand-up comedian, Atunyota Akpobome, popularly known as Ali Baba, has revealed how he unexpectedly became a father of triplets at the age of 59.

The comedian stated that his plan was to have one more son with his wife, Mary, because of her strong desire for a male child, especially after their kids travelled abroad for school.

He said they had earlier planned to adopt more children but decided to opt for it biologically, which led them to pursue In Vitro fertilisation, intending to fertilise two eggs, hoping for at least one successful pregnancy.

Ali Baba recounted, “Madam had always wanted to have a son. She had two daughters and we talked about it.

“So, I told her I didn’t want to be having school runs, joining Wizkid and attending PTA meetings. One truth is the nest becomes empty when all the children have to go abroad to study and the discussion comes up again.

“By the way, she had wanted to adopt two or three children to take care of them. One day, she then said instead of adopting, let’s just have our own. I was like, OK, but the way the economy is and she replied, ‘you said the economy is bad,’ I said yes and she said, have you stopped paying house rent for people? I said no. She asked again, “Have you stopped paying school fees?” and I said no.

“We have a foundation, the Purple Girl Foundation, taking care of over 120 people in schools from primary to university. Beyond that foundation, we have people we are paying school fees for and people we are sending to law school. So, she said all those people you are helping, do you remember the economy?

“She said if you think about it, the reason why God put you in this position might be more than taking care of yourself. So I said okay, let’s do one and she now said if we do one you know that IVFD fails so let’s do two.

“So, I said, let’s do two and then one of the eggs split into two and that was how it became three. When it became three she and the doctor knew that it had become three but they didn’t want to tell me. So they they were like sometimes when we ask God for one million, he gives you two million. When God want to bless you you don’t know how he wants to bless you, he will just do.

“So, I was like where is this going? She said the eggs split into two and I said it was two we were looking for and she said it is now three. Then we have three boys.”