BBN WINNER IMISI- MY CHILD DIED A MONTH BEFORE I AUDITIONED FOR BIG BROTHER NAIJA

People saw me happy on TV, laughing, dancing, and playing the game, but they didn’t know the kind of pain I carried into that house. A month before the Big Brother Naija audition, I lost my baby.

It still feels strange to say it out loud. One minute, I was planning to be a mother; the next, I was staring at emptiness. I lost my child because I was in a toxic relationship that drained me emotionally. I was crying almost every day, and I didn’t know how to leave. My body gave up before my heart did. That loss broke me in ways I can’t explain.

When the audition date came, I almost didn’t go. I remember sitting on my bed that morning, staring at the form, thinking, “What’s the point?” But something inside me whispered that I needed to try. I needed to breathe again. I needed to find a reason to live for myself. So I went with swollen eyes and a heart still bleeding and I gave it everything I had.

People think Big Brother Naija was just a game for me. But for me, it was therapy. I was learning to smile again, to talk without crying, to trust people without fear. Some days in the house, I’d cry silently in the bathroom, and then come out smiling because I didn’t want anyone to pity me.

Winning the show didn’t erase my pain, but it gave my pain purpose. It reminded me that even broken people can rise again. I didn’t walk into Big Brother Naija as a celebrity I walked in as a grieving mother trying to find herself again.

If there’s one thing my story should tell anyone out there, it’s this: no matter how heavy your pain feels, don’t give up on yourself. Healing doesn’t happen all at once sometimes it starts with just showing up.