I used to scare boys when I was younger –Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde

 by ’Nonye Ben-Nwankwo and Ademola Olonilua 

   

Who would believe that Omotola Jalade, with a backside that would make many men drool, was once a tomboy? Omosexy, as she is popularly called, said she used to scare boys when she was much younger.

In a recent interview she granted a UK-based newspaper, Telegraph, the screen goddess stated that she had two younger brothers and that rubbed off on her making her a tomboy. She said her mother used to make jokes that she would not find a husband, ironically she met her husband when she was 16 years old.

Omosexy said, “I have two younger brothers and was a tomboy, fiercely independent. I used to scare boys from a very young age. They found me too much, because I knew what I wanted and I’d boss them around. In those days my mother would joke that I would never find a husband.”

A daddy’s girl while growing, the star actress said that she was close to her late father who used to treat her like a boy. Her father, a manager of Lagos Country Club, died in an auto crash when she was just twelve years old.

She said, “My father was a different kind of African man. He was very enlightened. He always asked me what I wanted, and encouraged me to speak up. He treated me like a boy.”

Recounting her father’s death, the actress who is often referred to as the Queen of Nollywood said she did not grieve when her father died instead she just bottled everything up inside her. This she said affected her for years.

“I didn’t grieve. When I got home people were telling me that my mother had been crying for days, and that, as the eldest, I had to be strong for her and my brothers. I didn’t know what to do, so I just bottled everything up. It affected me for many years afterwards. I was always very angry.”

Omosexy stated that she later used to play out her repressed grief on camera, using it as an emotional trigger to make herself cry whenever scripts called for it. But this soon created other problems.

“The director would shout, ‘Cut!’ and I’d still be crying. I could bring the tears, but I could not control them. In the end I had to stop using that technique,” she said.