Popular TV broadcaster Frank Edoho has stated that his greatest fear is dying as a result of heartache or emotional injury caused by a lady.
The revelation comes only days after his separated wife, Sandra Onyenucheya, made stunning charges against him, including infidelity, cruelty, and financial recklessness.
Edoho made the comment in an interview with the YouTube channel Outside The Box, which was posted on Saturday. He spoke at length about masculine fragility, silent pain, and how he wants to be remembered after he dies.
“I don’t want to go to the gates of heaven and have them ask me what killed me and they say it’s a woman. Whether that woman be my daughter, my wife, or my mother, I don’t want that. I don’t want that to be my way out of this portal,” he said.
The broadcaster, who rose to national prominence as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in Nigeria, said he prefers a death marked by service and fulfillment rather than grief.
“I want to die with a smile on my face, saying that all the people I met, I tried to put a smile on their face, and to have the only regret that I wish I did more good. Not that I wish I had more time; that’s all,” he said.
The remarks came during a volatile point in Edoho’s personal life.
His former wife, Sandra, had days before released a lengthy Instagram post accusing him of ongoing infidelity during their marriage, identifying various people with whom she said he was romantically connected.
She also accused him of emotional abuse, financial mismanagement of her money, and forcing her to abort their second child.
Edoho had answered independently with his version of events, claiming Sandra had been unfaithful and had an affair with musician Chike.
He claimed to have recordings of discussions between the two and had even approached Chike directly in an attempt to repair the marriage for the sake of their children.
Edoho did not directly address the marriage dispute during the Outside The Box interview.
Instead, he discussed the greater burden males bear and how society forces them to suffer in quiet.
“The task of manhood is very daunting. Men don’t speak. Men go through a lot. Whatever a man is going through, he’s just silent. He doesn’t say it. He holds it to himself. And some of them go to the grave with it. Too many, actually,” he said.
He then made an unexpected personal disclosure to the interviewers, saying that he had been dealing with a significant private dilemma for almost two years without informing anyone.
“For two years, there was a couple of years back I was in a very dark hole, but nobody knew. I couldn’t call you guys. I just said, you know what, this is a journey I have to make on myself to reorganize myself. And I’m happy I did. But at the time, I thought that the walls were caving in,” he said.
He ascribed his ability to hide his agony to years of professional broadcasting discipline.
“Broadcasting taught me how to have a poker face. No matter what you’re going through, when it’s time to go on air, ‘Hi, good evening, welcome, I hope you’re having a nice time,’ the only reason you’re not there is that you’re dead. If you’re alive, it doesn’t matter what you’re going through; you have to be there doing just that.
“But ironically, I can’t do it in real life. I can’t switch off like I switch off when the microphone is in front of me,” he said.
Edoho’s marriage to Sandra is his second. His first marriage was to broadcaster Katherine Obiang, which similarly ended in divorce and garnered media attention at the time.
He stated in an earlier statement that he and Sandra had been separated for over two years before the recent public uproar.
