Maje Ayida opens up about depression after divorce from Toke Makinwa

Maje Ayida, the ex-husband of Nollywood actress Toke Makinwa, has bravely shared his struggles with depression following their highly publicised divorce.

In a recent testimony at a UK church, Ayida revealed that he withdrew from society due to shame and public criticism, which led to a year-long battle with depression.

Ayida, a fitness entrepreneur, explained that he lost focus, motivation, and even struggled to get out of bed. He stopped going to work, lost business opportunities, and felt like he was living in hopelessness. However, after doing research on how to deal with depression, Ayida began to take practical steps towards recovery.

"I went into hiding. I didn’t want to interact with anyone. I wanted to be alone, stay at home. I stopped going to work. I found it very difficult to work," Ayida shared. "I was in a very dark space. I was in a hole but I needed to get out of it… I made a choice. I decided that I didn’t want to stay in this space."

Ayida's marriage to Makinwa ended in 2016, and the two have been involved in a long-standing feud.

In 2017, Ayida sued Makinwa for N100 million for defamation of character after she wrote a memoir entitled ‘On Becoming,’ documenting her failed marriage to the gym expert.

Ayida’s lawyers had earlier written to Makinwa, asking her to remove parts of the book that were defamatory to their client’s (Ayida’s) character which she had ignored.

In November 2020, a Lagos state high court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square ruled in favour of the fitness trainer in the defamation lawsuit he instituted against Makinwa.

The court granted damages of the sum of N500,000 each to be paid by the 1st and 2nd defendants to any charity organisation of the claimant’s choice.

It also granted an injunction preventing the defendants from producing copies of the book with the defamatory words in the said pages.