Veteran actor Patrick Doyle has welcomed a daughter with his wife Funmilayo.
The 66-year-old announced the birth in a Facebook post on Saturday, expressing joy and gratitude.
“To the glory of God I announce the precious addition of a female child to my quiver. OMAYINUWA MAYEN HARRIET DOYLE was born yesterday at about 10:40 AM. Mother and child are doing well and daddy is overwhelmed with joy and gratitude to God Almighty,” he wrote.
The announcement confirms that both mother and child are in good health following the birth.
Patrick and Funmilayo got married at a registry in August 2022 after his marriage to actress Ireti Doyle ended.
The actor did not speak about the marriage publicly until March 2023. Asked in a 2024 interview with QEDNG publisher Olumide Iyanda why that was so, the actor said: “…My business is my business. On the day of the registry, she posted it on one of her handles. I told her to go ahead but I said ‘I’m not posting.’
“So, it was not a secret. It was Mothering Sunday and I decided to pay tribute to her alongside the other women that had impacted my life. I was not announcing my marriage to her.”
Patrick Doyle affirmed what he said in his March 2023 Mothering Sunday post on Facebook that he had never been happier.
“Yes, I’ve never been happier in my life and I say it with all responsibility. Do I not look like a happy man? Do I look my age? Am I not looking radiant? Have I looked this radiant in living memory? I’ve never been happier in my life.”
Addressing those who felt the statement was a slight on his ex-wife, he said, “For anyone to think it was a slight on another person, that person must be very low on the food chain of humanity. How can you quarrel with a man’s happiness? Did I ever announce to you that I was unhappy? I said ‘I have never been this happy,’ it means ‘I’m at my happiest now.’ It means my past has been happy, now my present is happier, my future is going to be even happier.”
Speaking in a 2025 interview on The Muvmnt Studio’s podcast, the actor spoke about the 33-year gap between himself and his wife and what intimacy is like between them.
“The experience of the other room never ends. It’s a continuous process. The learning is ad infinitum,” he said.
Mr Doyle said that marrying someone 33 years younger comes with its advantages.
“The advantage of that is that the person who’s 33 years younger listens to the person who’s 33 years older. A person who is 33 years older is not a bully or impervious to reason.
“So, we are starting on a pedestal of required respect for seniority, and you’re looking at a senior who also respects the junior and is ready to listen. I have to be prepared to hear because, as I said, I draw from the energy of the young around me,” he added.
The Oloture actor lost his first wife, Rosamond Doyle, to sickle cell anaemia in 1999.
He married Ireti Doyle in 2004, and the actress confirmed in a January 2023 interview with Chude Jideonwo that they were divorced.
