MAN’S STORY: I FINALLY CHOSE TO WALK AWAY FROM MY MARRIAGE
After deep reflection and repeated attempts to make things work, I have decided to step away from my marriage for the sake of my peace, safety, and well-being.
For a long time, I have endured constant physical and emotional abuse from my wife. During disagreements, she often resorts to violence, slapping, hitting, and using hurtful words. On several occasions, she has even threatened me with sharp objects such as knives and scissors. Unfortunately, today, she carried out that threat and stabbed me in the neck. By the grace of God, it wasn’t fatal, but it was the final straw that made me realize I cannot continue living in fear.
Throughout our marriage, I have done my best to provide for our home and ensure we lacked nothing. Despite my efforts, I have never received her support, emotionally, mentally, or otherwise. I have never raised my hand against her, yet that restraint has often been taken for weakness, giving her the boldness to abuse me repeatedly.
My family, having witnessed much of what I’ve gone through, has now asked her to leave and packed her belongings. She has quarreled with nearly every member of my family and remains in conflict with them.
This decision to end the marriage is not out of anger but self-preservation. I am choosing to prioritize my mental, emotional, and physical health. I have nothing to hide and no intention to tarnish her image; I am only speaking the truth about my experience.
From this point forward, I am focused on healing, rebuilding, and finding peace again.
WOMAN’S STORY: MY COUSIN AND HER UNFAITHFUL HUSBAND AND THE DIVORCE
My cousin ended her five-year marriage the day she found out her husband cheated. We all begged her to think twice, to calm down before walking away. But she was done. She packed her things, took her two kids, and left.
For a year, the man went from one relative to another, begging for forgiveness. He apologised, promised to change, did everything a repentant man would do. But she stood firm. “I deserve better,” she said.
She got her own place, started afresh, and later met a married man who treated her well. For a while it looked like she had found peace until his wife showed up one morning and scattered everything. The man disappeared, and she was left humiliated.
Not long after, another man came along. He stayed just two months before running off when money became an issue. No message, no explanation.
Then came an Alhaji who promised marriage but only if she sent her sons back to their father. He said he could not raise another man’s children. She ended it right there.
Three years later, she woke up one morning and asked herself, what if I go back? The man still loved her, the kids missed him, and maybe time had softened her heart.
So she went to his house early that morning, ready to reconcile. But a pregnant woman opened the door. Her ex-husband had moved on.
It has been over ten years now. The woman who once turned heads no longer does. The suitors stopped coming. Her kids are back with their father, cared for by their stepmother who now has two of her own.
Life does not always give you a second chance. Sometimes pride takes what pain never could.
NAIRALAND
