Big Brother Naija star, Hermes Chibueze Iyele opens up on the significant impact of his mother’s absence in his life during his upbringing as an adult.
He made this known during his appearance on the latest episode of The Nancy Isime Show, alongside his colleague, Phyna.
Hermes revealed that his father single-handedly raised him and his siblings, and despite this, he always emphasized that they should never harbour any hatred towards their mother.
The reality star shared how he would feel devastated when he witnessed other students’ mothers attending Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings, while his own mother never showed up.
Hermes on the impact of his mother’s absence in his life
“One significant thing I think affected me a lot was not having my mum around. A lot of people really think that me looking for my mum [when she went missing from a psychiatric centre], with all the love that I did, she was so present in my life. No. She was absent my entire life.
“My entire life was just longing to.. I will be in school. I will see people’s mums come for PTAs and what not, and I will just feel like, Oh! My God, my mum is so pretty, if she came here now, I would probably have like so many more friends. It never happened.
“The silver lining for me, why I really still have love to give, is my dad. And I think something happened in the Big Brother show, I think we were sitting in the dining room, it was an argument about how men could not.
“Someone said men could not take care of children as much as women would love and take care of them. I felt really attacked by that because my dad raised me. He did an absolutely great job. He took care of really young kids. Got a bus to hustle and train us through school. It was a lot.”