“I owe Doris Simeon no apologies at all” – Stella Damasus

In this interview with Thisday, Stella, a mother of two, talks about her short-live marital bliss with Jaiye Aboderin, an eight-month marital flop with another man and her newfound love with Daniel Ademinokan. She was quite vocal about the 'husband snatching' allegations. Read below:

 What is your state of origin? I was born in Asaba, Delta State.

Take us through your background.
I grew up in Benin City (Edo State) where I completed most of my primary education. I was born into a family of six (five girls and one boy; he is now late). I also attended Greater Tomorrow
Primary School and ldia College, both in Benin. I had my tertiary education at the University of
Lagos where I studied Creative Arts and graduated in 2002.

Where did you meet your first husband?

I met my first husband Jaiye (now late), who was one of the children of late Chief Olu, Aboderin – founder of The Punch Newspapers – at Jazzville Onike, Yaba, Lagos State. And our (marital) union lasted for seven years which left me a widow for four years, before I decided to remarry.

How did you come about getting married to your first husband, Jaiye Aboderin, at the age of 21?

I always wanted to start (married life) early. I always wanted to have children early. I wanted to have an early marriage; I wanted to grow with a family. I wanted to learn the inside of it. I didn’t want to wait and grow, and mature, and become big and famous then start to wonder’ oh, will anyone marry me now’. I didn’t want that to happen because at 16 I was already popular. I was making money; I was travelling. So at that point looking at my life, I said, if I do this for another five, six, seven years and I don’t start a family, it will become more difficult for me later on. So, I decided to find somebody who I love, who will love me back, we will go together. We will fight all the fight and make up; we will do whatever but we will grow old together. And that’s what happened.

But did you regret that decision?

I am happy I made that decision; because today I have a 17-year-old. I grew up with my children. When you see the three of us, and you see my daughters, you will think we are sisters. And we talk as friends. So it was an important thing for me to have a family (early). We have a tendency to be crazy and do whatever we like because we could get away with anything. We could travel all over the world. We could get people to like us like this (snaps finger): we hid money to throw around. If I didn’t have that family unit to check me, I don’t know what I would have become and I won’t lie about that.