Nigerian singer, Tiwa Savage has spoken out about the painful way Nigerians turned on her after her divorce from Teebillz in 2018.
In a recent interview on Spotify’s Receipts podcast, the singer reminisced about the overwhelming love and support she received from Nigerians during her rise to fame, which abruptly changed after she got married and had a child.
“When I came out, I was Nigeria’s sweetheart when I started and I could do no wrong in Nigerian’s eyes. I did everything by the books, I did everything by the books, you know, I went to university and I wasn’t a baby mama. I got married then I had a baby so I did everything in the right order and everybody loved me and then everything happened.”
Tiwa Savage noted a drastic change in public perception towards her after the highly publicized and messy divorce.
She recounted being subjected to intense criticism and blame for the divorce after her ex-husband, Teebillz, publicly announced their split.
“Then I started getting hate from blogs and I started getting hate from certain people. And that’s how our situation happened, he actually announced it online. I didn’t break up with him but I was the one being attacked and I my baby was just a few months old and I was dealing with postpartum and my body wasn’t the same and I was really depressed. Everyone then went to him and only few people came to see me.”
Tiwa shared that things took a turn for the worse, when she tried to publicly speak out about the situation.
“After I did an interview to tell my side of the story, it got worse. People were like ‘How dare you go and talk’ ‘You’re a woman and you’re supposed to build the house, it’s your fault.”
Tiwa also recalled that influential figures advised her against speaking out, cautioning that it would harm her reputation and public image.
“I remember famous people calling me to ask how I could tell my side of the story cuz I’d never win. Ever since then, I was like I won’t ever talk about the situation because it was very heartbreaking how the public took it”