Filmmaker, Kunle Afolayan, has stated that his father’s choice of 10 wives affected the late renowned actor.
Afolayan disclosed this during a chat with BBC Pidgin on Wednesday where he discussed his growing up in a polygamous family and his journey into filmmaking.
According to the 45-year-old filmmaker, Adeyemi Afolayan, his late father, was also a popular filmmaker before his death in 1996.
Afolayan sated that Adeyemi got “distracted” by his knack for polygamy.
The younger man stated that he could not marry many wives because of what happened to his father.
According to him, his late father gave birth to 25 children and they struggled to bond in their early days due to language and other barriers.
“I would not want to marry many wives because my father had 10 wives and I knew what happened throughout that period. I knew that really distracted my father. In this age, nobody needs to tell you before you know what’s right,” he said.
Afolayan further disclosed that he battled poverty and other challenges during his early days in the movie industry.
“I was born in Ebute-Metta and have lived in a one-room apartment before, we even had to grapple with flooding sometimes. It’s not a shame to say we have been poor before. But if you see how l made it, it’s a matter of consistency. My father was a very popular filmmaker and ordinarily, people would expect me to live the kind of life akin to Hollywood stars,” he said.
“But that wasn’t the case. How would one live such a life when you’re living in a room with 10 women? That doesn’t mean there was no love among u.”