Adekunle Gold, Davido, Regina Daniels… celebrity couples of 2019

Sometimes, the simplest epiphanies bearing up relationships have the most profound impact. Other times, minute oversights offset unpleasant narratives that eventually end blissful unions.

The year 2019 has seen lovebirds among Nigeria’s ever-growing league of prominent entertainers experience both bitter and sweet relationship moments alike — winding up in either break-ups or rapturous marriages.

Simi walked down the aisle with Adekunle Gold, a singer and graphics designer “in place of Falz,” a rapper alongside whom she had put out romance-oriented works. Sonia Morales ditched IK Ogbonna after several attempts to salvage the union.

From Fan’s unactualized relationship expectations for Falz and Tonto Dikeh’s post-divorce altercations with her ex-husband, here are five of the most talked-about celebrity couple moments of 2019.

Adekunle Gold and Simisola

Falz was arguably nowhere in sight on the day Simisola Ogunleye officially tied the knot with Adekunle Gold in a low-key ceremony — a move that had set Twitter on fire with questions as to whether or not he was invited.

Prior to Simi’s wedding, there had been speculations that Simi would get married to Falz as the duo had collaborated for a number of love-evoking projects including ‘Soldier‘, ‘Jamb Question‘ and ‘Chemistry‘.

Hinting that fans had mistaken her artistic relationship with the rapper for romance, Simi had, in an interview, said they both never admitted to the widespread claims that they had dated.

“People still tell me, ‘I still wish it was Falz.’ When we recorded ‘soldier’, there was so much chemistry. Nigerians loved love. They said we were dating even when we never said that. In the end, that was selling the music,” she had said.

Falz would later wade in on the controversy, leveraging on his rap lines in another collaborative track ‘Mind You Business’ to lash out at fans who he said have refused to let sleeping dogs lie.

Regina Daniels and Ned Nwoko

Regina Daniels had already made her strides into the movie scene as a teenage actress under the tutelage of Rita Daniels, her politician-cum-filmmaker mum. But 2019 saw her dominate discussions across social media platforms.

Alongside her Instagram influence, Regina had hit a crucial twist after she was appointed Atiku Abubakar’s youth campaign coordinator for Nollywood, ahead of the 2019 presidential elections. Yet, her fame had yet to come.

Her 2019 would later climax and see her topple Tonto Dikeh to emerge Google’s ‘2019 Most-Searched Actor’ for Nigeria on the back of the then-claims that she tied the knot with a Ned Nwoko, a 59-year-old politician.

What had been regarded as mere rumours turned out to be true after the couple shared a slew of romantic pictures of them together, with Regina admitting in a viral clip that she loved Nwoko and that she’s married.

Amid the backlash, Regina hedged, claiming she can’t marry within her age group because she’s stubborn.

Davido and Chioma

Davido was reported to have met Chioma while the latter was studying economics at Babcock University. But what was supposed to be a college romance blossomed into a relationship that made headlines all through 2019.

Having severally hinted on her pregnancy for the Afropop star, Chioma finally birthed a child, who readily earned an endorsement deal before birth and landed “over 200 clone Instagram accounts” shortly after his naming.

Davido went ahead to set social media aflame after he proposed to Chioma, staged a low-key introduction ceremony. He would later announce that they would be getting married in 2020.

Explaining that their wedding hashtag would be ‘Chivido’, the 27-year-old singer added that Chris Brown, US rapper, had indicated interest in being one of his groomsmen.

Tonto Dikeh and Churchill

Amid repeated bouts of allegations and refutals, Dikeh had bared lurid details on the crisis in her marriage to Olakunle Churchill. But these narratives climaxed after the actress came with a new wave of outrageous claims.

Verbal missiles and legal threats went back and forth. Dikeh alleged that Churchill had a clandestine life of cyber fraud and that the birth of their only child together came as the product of Churchill’s “40 seconds sex.”

The claim, which made the headlines, had come after the duo slugged it out over Churchill’s petition to the IGP on Dikeh’s alleged illegal sale of their N22 million SUV following their divorce.

But marriage troubles alone weren’t the only peculiarities that trailed Dikeh’s 2019. The 35-year-old actress had had altercations with other notable figures in the country’s movie industry over alleged debts and stolen lovers.

In a recent engagement with fans, she had said her vagina is the most magical part of her body, shortly after she, unlike many celebrities would do, admitted to undergoing plastic surgery to better her bum.

In reaction to Femi Otedola’s N5 billion donation to the northeast intervention, Dikeh had taken to social media to ask what her own father was up to while the likes of Dangote, Nigeria’s business mogul, got rich.

IK Ogbonna and Sonia

Long after IK Ogbonna had refuted claims that his marriage to Sonia Morales had hit the rocks, adding that he warned his parents never to get involved, his wife eventually broke the news in a shocker.

This had come after the Nollywood actor opened up on his parents’ reservation about marrying a white woman. He had also said he warned his parents never to get involved in talks regarding his marriage for fear of ruining it.

In April, Ogbonna had resorted to filing a lawsuit after a US-based Instagram user strongly accused him of secretly “running after Nollywood actors” in gay relationships despite being married to Sonia.

In a similar incident, Ogbonna had cautioned Tonto Dikeh to think of her son while attempting to “break the internet” with her marriage controversies but Dikeh fueled the gay allegations against him in response.