Veteran Nollywood actress and evangelist Eucharia Anunobi has opened up about her difficult relationship with her father, revealing that he strongly opposed her education and career ambitions simply because she was a girl.
The actress made the revelation during an appearance on The Honest Bunch Podcast, where she shared details of the challenges she faced growing up.
According to Anunobi, her father believed that educating a female child was unnecessary because girls would eventually marry and take their husband’s name, leaving no legacy for their family.
“My father was against me going to school. It was a thing of displeasure for him. From secondary school, he made it clear that he was not interested in my education,” she said.
The actress recalled that her father frequently questioned the value of educating a girl child.
“As a matter of fact, what is in a girl child? What legacy would it leave except that they are only going to get married. So please, cut them off from me,” she quoted him as saying.
Due to his refusal to support her education, Anunobi said she turned to modelling, which eventually helped her finance her schooling.
“That was how I began my journey and it encouraged me into modelling. It was modelling that sustained, fuelled and financed my education,” she explained.
She added that although her father was financially comfortable, he deliberately chose not to support her educational pursuits because of his beliefs about the girl child.
Anunobi also revealed that her father once locked her in her room for six months after she refused to accept an office job he had arranged for her.
“For six months, my father locked me in my room. There is the small white paper they call ‘use me’ paper — he would write an employment letter and push it under my door so I could fill the form and we could submit it,” she said.
However, she insisted on pursuing a different career path.
“But I would write back that I don’t want to work in an office. My mum would be crying and they would be giving me food like a criminal for six months in my own father’s house,” she added.
The actress further disclosed that her father did not begin paying her school fees until she gained admission into the university, forcing her to rely on her own efforts to sustain her education.
“In his mind, I was a waste. He didn’t pay my fees till university, and after I struggled to make my university education possible, he wanted to lord over me, but I refused. All those acting jobs I did then, I used to sneak out to go and do them,” she said.
Today, Anunobi is widely recognised as one of the notable figures in Nigeria’s film industry, with a career spanning decades in Nollywood.
