Music star, Tiwa Savage has given a rare insight into the beginning of her relationship with estranged husband, Tunji Balogun aka Teebillz. She said that when she met him, it was not love at first sight because she felt he was too arrogant. She however ended up marrying him.
Tiwa bared this in an interview on E Entertainment. However, she said she will always appreciate him for his contribution to her career.
She said, “When I first met him, I felt he was very arrogant. He was very tall, dark, handsome and very confident.
“He oozes that and he always expects that from me as well. So when I first met him, I didn’t fall in love. It wasn’t love at first sight. Although when he first met me, he said to me ‘so it’s either two things; I am either going to manage you or marry you. So I was just like ‘What! You are so full of yourself; I would never date you, let alone marry you’. So obviously, we decided he was going to manage me because I turned down the other option.
“He oozes that and he always expects that from me as well. So when I first met him, I didn’t fall in love. It wasn’t love at first sight. Although when he first met me, he said to me ‘so it’s either two things; I am either going to manage you or marry you. So I was just like ‘What! You are so full of yourself; I would never date you, let alone marry you’. So obviously, we decided he was going to manage me because I turned down the other option.”
“I never saw myself getting romantically involved with him; however, on getting to discover another side of him, I fell for him.”
Tiwa said, “We worked so closely together and I discovered this soft emotional guy. One who gave up everything for my career. He had a great business in L.A but he moved to Nigeria because he really believed in me more than I believed in myself.
“So gradually I just started seeing in him, this person. So it was inevitable. I tried to fight it. It can’t happen and I couldn’t help it.”
The ‘Kele-Kele love’ singer also narrated how she and Teebillz had their ‘fair share of marital ups and downs’, and how they had a little argument at their wedding reception.
“Everybody who is married knows that there are ups and downs in marriages and we had our fair share.
“We kind of fought on our wedding day; we just had this little tiff outside and we are like arguing and everyone is like ‘welcome the beautiful bride and the groom and we are dancing in and he’s just like grumbling and it’s on camera.
“So everyone watching are like ‘Wait were you guys just arguing so it’s real but there are cute moments and real moments.”
Notwithstanding their marital problems, Tiwa acknowledges that Teebillz helped give her image a face-lift and build the Tiwa Savage brand, as her manager.
“When Teebillz became my manager, he molded me into the Tiwa Savage brand we know today.
“I needed to do something and I met my manager who is now my husband. He saw me and was like ‘you could be really pretty if you put an effort into it’ and I was like ‘wait what do you mean’ and he was like ‘you need to lose a little weight, wax your legs; that might be attractive.
“So he just literally put me through this whole program and told me that ‘the music is great, the talent is there but 80% of it is branding.’
“So if you want to do the tom-boy thing, you have to take it to the extreme if you want to be hot and sexy you have to take it to the extreme. So I started learning how to wear heels and he basically just groomed me into the image of Tiwa Savage that we see now.”
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