Popular television host Frank Edoho has said his greatest fear is dying as a result of heartbreak or emotional damage inflicted by a woman.
The declaration comes days after his estranged wife, Sandra Onyenucheya, went public with explosive allegations of infidelity, abuse and financial recklessness against him.
Edoho made the statement in an interview with the YouTube channel Outside The Box, uploaded on Saturday, where he spoke at length about male vulnerability, silent suffering and how he wants to be remembered when he dies.
“I don’t want to go to the gates of heaven and they ask me what killed me and they say it’s a woman. Whether that woman be my daughter, my wife, 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 gained national fame hosting the Nigerian edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, said the kind of death he wants is one defined by service and fulfilment, not heartbreak.
“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 comments arrived at a combustible moment in Edoho’s personal life.
His estranged wife, Sandra, had days earlier published a lengthy Instagram post accusing him of sustained infidelity during their marriage, naming several women she alleged he was romantically involved with.
She also accused him of emotional abuse, financial recklessness with her money, and pressuring her to abort their second child.
Edoho had responded separately with his own account of events, alleging that it was Sandra who had been unfaithful, and claiming she had an affair with singer Chike.
He said he had recordings of conversations between the two and had even approached Chike directly in an attempt to save the marriage for the sake of their children.
In the Outside The Box interview, however, Edoho did not address the marriage dispute directly.
Instead, he spoke about the broader burden men carry and how society conditions them to suffer in silence.
“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 a personal admission that surprised the interviewers, revealing that he had himself passed through a severe private crisis for about two years without telling anyone around him.
“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 reorganise myself. And I’m happy I did. But at the time, I thought that the walls were caving in,” he said.
He attributed his ability to conceal that pain to decades 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 was to broadcaster Katherine Obiang, which also ended in separation and attracted public attention at the time.
He confirmed in an earlier statement that he and Sandra had been separated for close to two years before the recent online uproar.
The post “I Don’t Want A Woman To Be What Killed Me” — Frank Edoho Speaks On Heartbreak, Male Vulnerability Amid Marital Crisis appeared first on TheNigeriaLawyer.
