I got married at the young age of 22 because I didn't want someone else to marry my wife | Yul Edochie tells his love story and more...

                       

Over the weekend (HERE), we brought you a first part of our exclusive interview with actor Yul Edochie, now we bring you the final part. Enjoy!

How long have you been married?

I have been married for twelve years now.

Wow! That  means you were very young when you got married?

Yes, I  was 22 when I got married and right now I'm just 34 years old. That's 12 years ago. Really? 12 years already? (laughs).

And your father approved of you getting married at a very young age?

Yes of course. My father too got married when he was 22 years old.

Are saying you really got wedded at that age or just move-in-lovers?

 I got married in every way a man does. Traditional, church, every every. That was in 2004, I was quite young though.

How did you summon the courage to take such step at that age?

I think my parents helped me because I have known my wife for a long time. Just about when we got into school that was when I met her. 

Even before I finished school my mother knew I was going to get married to my wife; she really likes her a lot.

So, by the time I finished university at the age of 22, I really wanted to get married to her but I had nothing and she had nothing. 

We just finished school were still doing our youth service then. I was talking with my mother and she asked me if I wanted to get married and I said yes and my mother told me I shouldn’t worry that she was going to talk to my father and she did.

My mum also warned me that if I hope to marry her when I have enough money, someone else might take her away. She told me my father wasn’t rich when they got married but today he is the person he is.

So, you see you can really plan this things, the most important thing is finding that person who understands you and who wants to be with you when you are nothing. And if I hadn’t done that then, it would be such a problem for me now to find the right person to marry. 

Everybody wants to come in then you won’t know who is real. I would say I was lucky to have someone who said I am going to be with you, even when I had nothing.

You have older ones who were not married then, and going by the Igbo tradition you hardly get married before those older than you. So, how did you do it?

It wasn’t really a problem at that time I had two brothers who were not married and they told me I should go ahead if that’s what I wanted.  

At that time, I went through a lot. I won’t tell you it was all rosy. At some point in my life I thought it was the biggest mistake I made because none of my friends was married at that time.  

Pulling through was not easy. I handle a lot of things then like a kid, but my father will always tell me don’t worry about now later on in life you will find out you did the best thing for yourself, and I am starting to realize it was the best thing to me.

When you got married where were you guys living?

I was living in Enugu in my father’s house that was where I started. You know I love the fact that we are talking about this. The young ones now see me living well and doing well and they want to be like me in a day, but it takes time. You need to be focused and not just focused, have passion in what you do. Believe in that thing whether or not you are going to die, keep doing it. You can’t make it in a day it takes time. I am happy we are talking about this it was crazy but I thank God I am fine.

If you hadn’t gotten married then would you have gotten married to someone in the industry?

Yeah of course there are a lot of good people in the industry.

Who would you have opted for?

I can’t say (laughs), if I say that it means I am actually looking for another wife. I don’t have any crush on anybody in the industry. I just wanted to learn how to act from the actors.‎

How does your wife cope with your celebrity lifestyles?

She's a very loving and understanding woman. She's not really a social person. Not everybody around her knows that she is my wife and when they see me with her, they would be wondering what we are doing together always. 

She has given me three wonderful kids and we are doing perfectly well.