Nollywood actor Solomon Akiyesi in an interview with Dailytrust, noted that since becoming famous, he has lost his privacy and can no longer eat at local canteen the way he used to.
He also stated that being a celebrity, people tend to misrepresent situations, pointing that because of a certain development which ensued between him and a lady, it was misrepresented and he lost his marriage.
According to him, “It is not just a price but rather there are various prices that I have paid for being famous. First of all, I am a very private person and I like street life; I was brought up on the streets and I love such life. You won’t find me in exquisite restaurants. I am used to local delicacies but because I am an actor, I can’t possibly do all of that because people see me differently. There were times I would walk into a chemist and people would be like ‘what are you doing here?’ And I respond too by asking what they are doing here; this is a chemist for goodness sake. You lose your privacy, you can’t be yourself and then you have to struggle from pretending to be someone else whom you do on TV and be yourself. I love roasted yams so much and there was a place in Enugu where I ate it, but I can’t go there anymore. Then secondly, a lot of times you are misunderstood. When you try to be yourself, you will be misunderstood and then someone would be like ‘this man eh, and he’s an actor.’ The problem is that when you are a public figure, you are a role model to a lot of people.”
“In 2013 the media was awash that I had abandoned my wife for another woman. It was loud, and it was all over the world. But that wasn’t the truth. That event, because of how the world took it, I lost my marriage. Sometimes you hear that actors and actresses don’t get married, we love marriage. I love family life, I love to go home after work and go back to my daughter that I pray to have but you see, when you do something, people misunderstand you, judge you anyhow especially because you are an actor. Those are some of the prices I have had to pay because I am an actor. Then you don’t have time for your loved ones. People like us have to pray to be very lucky to get a good wife who understands what we do and understand that this is when you have to move,” he said.