Wedding photo-shoot picture of Toke Makinwa and Maje Ayida
Fortunately for the fans and the media, unfortunately for brand credibility and story substance, we now find ourselves in an era where many celebrities will do almost anything, including concocting the most absurd stories, to get cheap and easy publicity. Matter of fact, with these guys, anything can happen and everything goes when trying to get quick hype. After all, it is often said that ‘there is no such thing as bad publicity’.
Some celebrities have been openly called terms like ‘fame-whore’, ‘spotlight addict’, etc, case in point,Yvonne Nelson, when she recently had a spat on micro-blogging site twitter with popular blogger, Linda Ikeji, over a fake story the latter claimed the former sent to her. Their dispute lingers.
Toke Makinwa, an OAP at Rhythm FM and host of ‘Trending’ on Hip TV, recently stunned Nigerians when she secretly got married, registry-style, to her long-time off-and-on partner, fitness expert Maje Ayida, on Wednesday, January 15, 2014. Ordinarily, there wouldn’t have been so much surprise and subsequent discourse about the secret wedding if the pair, who had been together for 12 years, hadn’t they recently ‘ended’ their relationship, a news-story that was well reported and overly sensationalised by bloggers and social media users.
Online platform BellaNaija claimed to have been aware of the wedding but decided to keep mum about it to respect the pair’s privacy. The site’s report went further: ’After the much publicised split, insiders revealed to BN that Maje felt miserable about the break-up. And to get his one and true love with him forever, he ensured that he popped the big question and tied the knot as soon as possible.’
Less than a week after the wedding, Makinwa finally opened up on the secret marriage, painting on her official blog, the supposed real picture.
‘On the 15th of January 2014, I got married to my lover and best friend. It was such an intimate event; I haven’t stopped apologising to family and friends who feel slighted that they could not attend. I really did not wish to keep it a secret, plus, it was such a huge surprise, I had no clue. Relationships are tough, people go through the ups and downs and we as a couple have had our share of that. Having a private moment was not to offend anyone; it was God’s appointed time,’ Toke wrote.
Considering the fact that the ‘April by Kunbi’ wedding dress she wore for the ceremony was a perfect fit and even made to her specification and size, inquisitive and suspicious minds would be readily forgiven for doubting her claims and reading between the lines of their break-up turned marriage story, all within a month. It begs the question: was it a plot to stay trending or was it a genuine natural occurrence which led them back into each other’s arms?
When asked about her disposition towards returning/keeping engagement rings on a program on Ebony Life TV, Toke said she wouldn’t be returning hers any time soon, that she’d instead make a chain out of it. Bloggers went haywire by amateurishly reporting that she said she would never give up her ring. One website had this headline: ‘I Worked So Hard for My Ring & I’m Never Returning It’. It became another hit story in the Toke and Maje affair/drama, bloggers copied and pasted, social media went amok, while the gullible unsuspecting fans lapped it up, as usual.
On Friday, January 17, 2014, exactly two days after her private wedding, a reporter interviewed Toke, and when queried about the ‘supposed crash’ of her relationship with her then ‘on again off again’ boyfriend, she replied, ‘You never know, anything can happen in the future, besides, feelings never go away’. Unbeknownst to the reporter, anything had already happened; Maje had already married the pretty lady.
When further asked about the ‘ring’ comment and if she had returned it or was ever going to, the host of ‘Toke’s moments’ maintained her poker face and told an outright lie, ‘Let’s just say maybe I made into a nice stud or earring, which you might be seeing on the red carpet soon.’ By nightfall the same day, the news of her secret marriage had spread like wildfire.
The genuineness of Toke’s letter to the public was further questioned when on Tuesday, February 4, 2014, her wedding dress designer, Olakunbi Oyelese, revealed on TV show Moments with Mo that Toke had actually called her three days before the wedding to ask her to design a wedding dress for her.
She said, ‘Toke called me up and said “I’m getting married”.’ And when she asked for the date, Toke said, ‘In three days’. This revelation is either entirely false or proof that Toke deliberately misled (lied to) the public in her apology-letter.
What to believe begs the question: Did Toke and Maje actually breakup, get back together and hurriedly marry? Was the entire drama deliberately schemed to keep media frenzy alive and fans talking about her? By not revealing the wedding to the reporter, was Toke simply trying to keep the good news under wraps so as not to jinx it with undue public scrutiny? But then, less than 12 hours later, another blog broke the news to the world.
Maybe she just wanted to make the announcement on her own terms!
Many bloggers and websites, for want of sensational news-stories, went as far as peddling several rumours and concocted stories which they said led to the impromptu wedding. While some attributed the hurried wedding to pressures from Maje’s family to wed Toke once they supposedly found out that she was pregnant, others say that the fear of falling into the single-mother category drove her back into her hubby’s arms.
Toke has since come out to categorically deny being pregnant. She said, ‘Having a baby is a precious gift from God and when that time is right, I am sure, he will bless us with ours.’
But then, who knows what is true and what is not?
So much to ask, so much to wonder. Sadly, that’s all we can do, for the real truth lies between Mr. & Mrs. Ayida. Could it all be for the sake of publicity, a vital tool for branding and celebrity positioning, or was it merely a true life story that had a happy ending.
Again, who knows?
One certain fact is that there is more to the story than the pair has chosen to reveal!
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