Phyna: How Muslim family of my ex-lover rejected me despite my desire to convert

Phyna, the 2022 Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) winner, has revealed how the Muslim family of her ex-lover rejected her despite her willingness to convert to Islam.

Born Josephine Otabor, the reality star opened up about her past relationships in an interview with Hero Daniels.

Phyna said she and her ex-lover dated for 12 years, adding that their families already knew each other.

She revealed that she had traveled down for his father’s burial when his sisters and mother threw her out of their house while insisting that he would never “marry a Christian”.

The 28-year-old also said she was unaware that she was pregnant at the time and upon informing the man and his family, they claimed she was trying to use “pregnancy to hold him down”.

She disclosed that she eventually aborted the pregnancy because “the embarrassment was too much”.

“I went back to his side for his dad’s burial. The next morning, his elder sister called me to the room and she was like she wants to tell me something. She was like now that their father has died and her brother can’t marry me. The thing is that I’m Catholic but inside all of that I was practicing Islam at some point because of him. And he is the last born, old enough to get married obviously and then I did not know I was pregnant,” she said.

“So she said now he has to marry a Muslim girl, he cannot marry a Christian and I was like after how many years? Plus I felt that was not a problem because I felt it was tradition that when you get married to a Muslim, you would convert and I was willing to convert. It was getting serious and the whole thing seemed like they had discussed it before I came.

“The next thing she was like she was going to throw my bag outside if I did not leave because he had to marry the girl for a reason. His other sister came, his mother came, the same thing. I was embarrassed because it was a big thing. People were there, it was dramatic and it was as if I should pass out.

“I left, came back home, found out I was pregnant. I called him, told him and he said that was my business. I also called his elder sister and she was like I wanted to use the pregnancy to hold her brother down, that it would not work. His mother also said a lot and he just told me that he had a girl he was getting married to.

“I would have loved to keep the child but the embarrassment was too much. Not even one person in the family wanted a Christian and I felt I had a bright future and I knew it was going to draw me back so I was left to make the hardest choice ever.”