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Nollywood actress Sola Sobowale has opened up about her experience with starting over in the UK as a caregiver after already becoming famous in Nigeria.
Speaking on the latest episode of the King of Talks podcast hosted by Teju Babyface, the actress revealed why she left Nigeria between 2004 and 2016 after becoming popular as Toyin Tomato on the series Super Story.
“When I started this ‘elevated omo odo’ thing, I started from the grassroots. Then, I went to the college. I got my NVQ 2,3,4, to become a team leader. When I started work in that office, there were Nigerians, Jamaicans, and Ghanaians, and all of them knew Sola Sobowale. But it was confusing because my tag read ‘Olu,’ and not Olusola,” she began.
The thespian stressed that at the time, she was a firm believer of dignity in labour, and did everything to put food on the table for her children and pay her bills.
The actress recalled a time when she was recognised by a Nigerian co-worker named Seye Fadipe, who questioned her for leaving the fame behind to start over.
"He looked at me and said ‘Are you crazy?’ I said I am not crazy. He asked 'What are you doing? You are up there in Nigeria,'" she said. "But there was something better than that. My future. My children are my future. There will be a time when the energy will no longer be there. Then it is what you sow that you reap."
Highlighting the difficulties she faced, she emphasised that her switch was not an easy one.
“It was not easy starting all over, because in this place, only the tough will last. If one is lazy, one will be hungry. People who have been here for 20 to 50 years don’t find it easy, because with the kind of system they have, one cannot avoid paying bills. If one does not work, one won’t eat, and one won’t be able to pay bills," she added.
She also spoke on the variety of rumours she heard about herself during her time away from Nigeria, including the one which claimed that she was was arrested for drug peddling in Saudi Arabia and killed.
“The worst of the rumours I heard about me was when they said Sola Sobowale had been killed in Saudi Arabia, and that I carried cocaine. It was written here in Nigeria. I was arrested in Saudi Arabia and that there, they amputated my leg and my hand. And I said to them that I am a star in Nigeria and that they should kill me. I have never been to Saudi Arabia. I do not even know where it is on the map," Sobowale said.
"So many negative things. But to God be the glory. God has compensated me," she concluded.
Watch the full interview below: