Charly Boy reveals why he finally married partner after 40 years together

Charles Oputa, a musician and activist better known as Charly Boy, has married his American partner, Diane, after 40 years together.

Charly Boy and Diane exchanged marriage vows on Saturday at the Chapel of Sisters of Jesus the Redeemer Catholic Church in Gwarimpa, Abuja.

The wedding was officiated by Mathew Kukah, the Catholic bishop of Sokoto Diocese, and had in attendance close friends and relatives of the couple, including the aged mother of Charly Boy.

Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the archbishop of Abuja Catholic Diocese, was also in attendance.

Charly Boy told NAN on the sidelines that he and his wife decided to wed in church to honour his aged mother who had been “pleading that we do the right thing”.

He told NAN that he got married as a teenager in 1974, and secured divorced after the union produced one child. He noted that the Catholic Church observed a strict marital doctrine.

“This is not that kind of marriage with fanfare; I am doing it to please my aged mother and meet certain demands of the society,” the entertainer said.

“She has been pleading that we do the right thing, saying this is the woman I have been living with for 40 years.

“We have been following through with the process of annulment of my last marriage, and my former wife who has since remarried cooperated very well, and then in 2017, the marriage was formally annulled.

“My mother actually got the wife for me at the age of 19 because I was a little rascally with women as a young man; she thinks it would curb my sexual excesses.”

Charlyboy, 67, has nine children from different women and has 16 grandchildren.