Veteran actress Eucharia Anunobi has opened up about her strained relationship with her father, revealing that he opposed her education and career ambitions simply because she was a girl.
Speaking on The Honest Bunch Podcast, the Nollywood star-turned-evangelist recounted how her father believed educating a girl was a waste of time, arguing that she would eventually marry and take her husband’s name, leaving no legacy for the family.
Anunobi said her father’s resistance began as early as secondary school.
“My father was against me going to school. It was a source of displeasure for him. From secondary school, he made it clear he was not interested in my education,” she recalled.
She remembered how he often questioned the value of educating a girl.
“As a matter of fact, what is in a girl child? What legacy would it leave except that she’s only going to get married? So please, cut them off from me,” she quoted him as saying.
Denied support for her schooling, Anunobi turned to modelling, which eventually helped her fund her education.
“That was how I began my journey, and it pushed me into modelling. Modelling sustained, fueled, and financed my education. Yes, my father was wealthy in his own way, but he did not want to have anything to do with the girl child,” she explained.
Anunobi also revealed that her father once locked her in her room for six months when she refused to accept an office job he had arranged.
“For six months, my father locked me in my room. He would slide a small piece of paper under the door with an employment form, expecting me to fill it out,” she said.
But she stood her ground.
“I would write back that I didn’t want to work in an office. My mum would be crying, and they would give me food like I was a criminal for six months in my own father’s house,” she added.
She further shared that her father refused to pay her school fees until she reached university, forcing her to support herself.
“In his mind, I was a waste. He didn’t pay my fees until university, and after I struggled to make it happen, he wanted to lord over me, but I refused. All the acting jobs I did back then, I used to sneak out to do them,” Anunobi said.
