Veteran Nollywood actress, Joke Silva recently revealed how she was shattered when she discovered that she was an adopted child.
That interesting part of her life was made known during an interview on Funmi Iyanda’s Public Eye.
The 59-year-old said she found out at about the age of 10 when she stumbled on her adoption papers.
According to her, “It is something that one is just getting to the point where one is just sharing it in the public arena.
“It is something I found out when I was much younger because mine was a secret adoption.
“When I mean secret, I mean it was legal because it was done through the Red Cross and all that; but it was not something that my parents discussed.
“My aunt wanted me to travel with her to Kenya and my mother was not around so she said, ‘do you know where your passport is ?’ and I told her ‘yes. I know where my mother keeps all the important documents.’
“I go to this important suitcase that has all the documents. I found my passport and also found my adoption certificate, and I was like, I beg your pardon !
“I was about 10 or 11 years and it was a bit earth-shaking. It was tough.
“You know how you are, you are very sensitive as a child in the sense that there was just something in it because if it was something they wanted to discuss, they would have discussed it with me so I didn’t even have anybody to discuss it with.
Joke Silva added that after she discovered her status, she did not discuss it with her parents and they also never discussed it until years after.
She however found it interesting that her mother preferred to discuss it with her son.
The Nollywood diva said that “Over the years, we got to a particular point where we were able to discuss it especially me and my mother.
“We discussed it as some point. What was actually interesting is that she found it easier to discuss it with my older son than she did with me.
“When I found the document, I did not discuss it with them for a long time because I realised that there was just something instinctive in me that knew that if it was okay to discuss it, I would have been told about it. But my mum was not comfortable with talking about it so I did not bring it up.”
However, “someone else from outside said, ‘wait a minute, but I thought this woman didn’t have any children. How are you introducing her as so so so’s child.’ Then I had to… but my mum wasn’t comfortable discussing it, and, knowing that, one didn’t.”
Read also:
35 Years Together for Olu Jacobs and Joke Silva