Veteran Nollywood actress, Joke Silva, has opened up about her decision to marry fellow actor Olu Jacobs, despite the nearly two-decade age difference between them.
The 62-year-old actress described her husband, now 82, as a “gorgeous person” and said love was the driving force behind her choice.
Speaking on Stephen Akintayo’s Leadership podcast, Silva recalled that her father was initially opposed to the union due to the significant age gap.
The host asked: “You got married in 1985 at 24, so your husband was 20 years older than you, why did you accept?”
Silva replied: “I was in love with him. As simple as that. And he was such a very gorgeous person.
“I remember one of my sisters telling in 1984 when I came to Nigeria with him [Olu Jacobs] and they met, she called me aside and said, ‘Joke, this is the man to take to daddy.’
“Initially, my dad had issues with the fact that he [Olu Jacobs] was older, but my mum was like, well, this is the person they know me with, and then her parents had that kind of age gap as well. So, she agreed for us to get married.”
Meanwhile, the actor has been off the movie screens but recently he was seen publicly at Africa International Film Festival Awards in Lagos, looking frail.
The wife revealed that her husband has been battling with Dementia with Lewy bodies for a couple of years.
“He is dealing with issues and it has been going on for a couple of years. It is known as dementia with Lewy Body. It is a degenerative disease that affects the brain and it is almost like a Parkinson’s type of disease, it affects the brain so you don’t see the shaking. It affects the person,” she said.
