Key Points:
- Maje Ayida said his public divorce from Toke Makinwa pushed him into a year-long depression.
- He stopped working, lost business, and hid from people out of shame and fear.
- He started healing after choosing to take responsibility and make positive life changes.
Fitness coach and businessman, Maje Ayida, has spoken about the dark time he faced after his famous divorce from Nollywood star Toke Makinwa.
In a video clip now trending on social media, Ayida was seen speaking at a church in the United Kingdom. There, he shared how the end of his marriage sent him into a full year of depression. He said the shame made him hide from the world and lose his will to work.
“I Was Ashamed Of Myself”
Ayida said his divorce in 2016 was painful, not just emotionally, but also publicly.
“It was a very publicised divorce,” he said. “I felt alone. I felt ashamed. I didn’t want to see anyone. I stayed home and hid.”
He explained that people’s opinions hurt him deeply. It made him feel like a failure to his family and himself. He stopped working. Business deals were lost. He didn’t even want to get out of bed.
“As a man, your work is your identity. But I started to lose jobs and clients. I had no focus or energy.”
He Stayed In A Dark Place For A Year
The depression lasted a whole year. During that time, he said he suffered from insomnia — he couldn’t sleep at all.
“I was paranoid. Anytime I went out, I felt everyone was watching or talking about me,” he said. “That would send me right back home again.”
Maje admitted the silence in his life was loud. The pain was inside, but it felt louder than any noise outside.
He shared that he became so hopeless that he had to make a hard choice — either stay broken or start healing.
“Accountability Saved Me”
After struggling for months, Ayida said he took the first step towards healing by accepting responsibility.
“I did some research. I found that accountability was the key to healing. I blamed myself, and that hurt even more at first. But then I started taking real steps to grow.”
He said that was the moment everything started to slowly change. He began to take his life back, little by little.
A Legal Battle After The Divorce
Maje Ayida and Toke Makinwa got married in 2014. By 2016, the marriage ended. In 2017, things got worse when Ayida took legal action against Makinwa over her memoir titled “On Becoming.”
Ayida said the book damaged his name and sued for ₦100 million. The court later ruled in his favour in 2020. It ordered Makinwa to remove the harmful parts of the book and pay ₦500,000 to charity.
Despite the court win, Ayida says the real fight was in his mind.
Watch the video below;
