Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has confirmed that she gave birth to twin boys in 2024.
The acclaimed author, known for books like Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, explained that she kept their birth a secret to protect her family’s privacy.
In an interview with The Guardian, Adichie, 47, shared that public curiosity about her life, her personal losses, and her challenges as a mother led her to be very private.
“I want to protect my children,” Adichie said. “I’m OK with having them mentioned, but I don’t want the piece to become about them.”
Adichie has always been careful about revealing personal details, and many people didn’t even know she was married to Dr. Ivara Esege, a hospital physician, whom she married in 2009. She said that her decision to keep her private life to herself was intentional.
“So, here’s the thing, Nigerians are… they want to know about your personal life. Because of that, I am resistant. I very rarely talk about it,” Adichie explained.
At 47, Adichie joked that she sometimes forgets how old she is. Despite the challenges of motherhood, she has been working on her new novel, *Dream Count*, which will be released on March 3, 2025. The book, which follows the lives of four women, explores themes of migration, cultural identity, and the pressures of marriage and motherhood.
Adichie said that completing the novel took longer than expected, and she admitted that motherhood created a mental block that made writing fiction difficult for years.
“I didn’t want to leave such a long gap between novels. When I got pregnant [with her daughter], something just happened. I had a number of years in which I was almost existentially frightened that I wouldn’t write again. It was unbearable,” she said.
While she could write nonfiction, fiction—the genre she loves most—felt out of reach during that time.
Adichie shared that working on Notes on Grief (a book she wrote in 2021 after the death of her father in 2020) helped her rediscover her creative flow. She said the grief memoir opened up a new path for her writing.
“I noticed something had shifted. I was willing to let go,” she explained.
In 2021, Adichie also lost her mother. Although it was hard for her to express that grief, she said that *Dream Count* ended up being a tribute to her mother, though it wasn’t meant to be a sad book.
“Only when I was almost done did I realise, my God, it’s about my mother. It wasn’t intentional. I’m happy that it’s not a sad book. She wouldn’t want a sad book dedicated to her,” she said.
