Video: Maje Ayida shares emotional struggles after divorce from Toke Makinwa

Abdullateef Fowewe

Fitness expert, Maje Ayida has disclosed that he struggled with depression following his highly publicised divorce from Nollywood actress Toke Makinwa.

Video link: https://x.com/DailyEconews/status/1932802374772388108?t=ZZyi1CiTElYrBrlgnaxD5Q&s=19

In an emotional discussion with Pastor Bolaji Idowu during a church service, a clip of which went viral, Ayida expressed how the overwhelming public scrutiny of the breakup significantly affected his emotional health.

He spoke about feeling consumed by shame, which caused him to withdraw from others.

Ayida acknowledged that this experience disrupted both his personal and professional life.

He ceased working, missed several business opportunities, and found it challenging to carry out even simple daily activities.

He said, “I will be honest about the fact that I want through a divorce which resulted in me being depressed. It was a very publicised divorce.

“And that left me feeling very alone. I withdrew from society, I was really ashamed of my situation. Not just for myself, of course, my self-esteem was affected, but legacy is very important to me. I was ashamed of what I felt I had done to my family’s name. As a result, I went into hiding.

“I didn’t want to interact with anyone. I wanted to be alone, stay at home. I stopped going to work. I found it very difficult to work. It was very hard.

“I not only lose focus but also motivation. I lose the essence of to even get up in the morning. What am I getting up for? Everyone already feels a certain way about me. So, I started to lose work as a result of it. That was when it really started to get to me.

“As a man, your work is your identity, and I started to lose work, business deals so it became a real problem for me.

“That was when I made a decision. I had to make a decision for my own survival because I was living in hopelessness. It went on for weeks.

“I was out of the look for a whole year. I checked out of life for a year to recoup. I realised that I was in a very dark space. I was in a hole but I needed to get out of it… I was on the floor. What’s sleep? I didn’t even know what that was. I had insomnia.

“I was paranoid as well so the few chances that I do get to go out, I have created a scenario in my own mind that everybody is talking about me, people are looking at me. And that would just send me back into my own home.

“That feeling of hopelessness and the noise that was going on around me even though I was in silence was insane. I made a choice. I decided that I didn’t want to stay in this space.

“I did research on how to deal with it. The top of the list of the research that I did was accountability. I took the blame on myself. It made me feel worse at first until I began to take practical steps.”

Ayida and Toke Makinwa tied the knot in 2014 but their marriage came to an end just two years later in 2016, amid public allegations of infidelity.

In 2017, Ayida took legal action against Makinwa, filing a N100 million defamation lawsuit in response to claims made in her memoir ‘On Becoming’.

The book chronicled their turbulent relationship, sparking widespread media attention.

Prior to the lawsuit, Ayida’s legal team had issued a demand for the removal of the allegedly defamatory passages from the memoir, a demand Makinwa did not comply with.

However, in November 2020 a Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square ruled in Ayida’s favour.

The court awarded N500,000 in damages against both the author and publisher, ordering that the sum be donated to a charity chosen by Ayida.

Additionally, the court prohibited any further publication or distribution of the book containing the contentious material.