‘I was broke, frustrated’ — Shan George recalls attempting suicide

Shan George, Nollywood star, says she was once so broke and distraught that she attempted suicide.

The actress recalled the financial woes that prompted the sale of her valuables before her mother died in 2021.

“My mum fell ill 2011. It became so bad. It wasn’t letting me sleep,” she told Chude Jideonwo, the media entrepreneur.

“As if that wasn’t bad enough, my rent had expired. I had to sell some of my cars and jewelry. I was selling some of my valuables to raise money for her hospital bills. I went back to Calabar.

“They were asking what I was going to be doing. That night, I cried till morning. I thought that was the end for me.

“When I was suicidal, I was so broke one day. One of my visitors brought this shaving powder. I wanted to put it in water and drink it. I told my mother I was going to kill myself as I was tired and frustrated.

“My mum said, ‘okay, you’re not going alone. Bring it. We’re going together.’ It was at night and I was happy. I took it to her and was thinking that the two of us would just go quietly because this life is tiring. I won’t lie.”

George, who has had two children, is widely believed to have been involved in a number of broken marriages.

On misconceptions about how many men she has married, the actress said people went as far as quoting 20.

“They said I’ve married 20. Can you bring the pictures? What are even the names of these husbands? No names, yet they claim I divorced three times and married four times,” she said.

“The thing about my marriage and why it didn’t work out is because, when I was going to get married, I gave a condition. For my mom, she didn’t remarry because she didn’t want her kids to have different surnames.

“As for me, I didn’t care about the surname. I wanted to go to school, even if I marry 10 men with 20 children and 500 surnames, so be it.”

The actress recalled how she was beaten by her husband a couple of times after she left the children for an outing.

“People need to cut some people slack. There’s a difference between being alone and feeling alone,” she added.

“Being alone and still feeling alone is a depressing state to be in. One day I woke up in the morning and told my husband I was going to the market. I left to really find a way to go to school.

“I didn’t have where I was going, hence, I couldn’t take my kids with me. My husband was fine with having the kids but, when the whole Brouhaha happened, I got beaten a couple of times by him.”