Actress Regina Chukwu has recounted how she lost her husband to tuberculosis, just three years into their marriage.
The 45-year-old shared the emotional story during an interview with her colleague Biola Adebayo.
Regina said she got married in her early 20s while still a student and met her late husband, an Anambra native, shortly after completing secondary school.
Raised in the Iyana-Ipaja area of Lagos, Regina said her husband developed tuberculosis as a result of internal bleeding from an earlier accident. His health deteriorated rapidly after the birth of their second child, prompting the couple to travel to his village for treatment.
In her words, “We took him to a local health center. At a point, he was in so much pain, he begged me to give him a death injection.”
The actress revealed that her husband eventually died at the age of 28. Regina recounted the tragic moment she found out about his death: “I saw practically my father-in-law dragging him. He just said, ‘He is dead.’ I fainted. I woke up the next day — I couldn’t even say goodbye to him. He had already been buried.”
After the burial, Regina said her late husband’s sister asked her to remain in Enugu, promising to rent an apartment or start a business for her.
She further explained that according to her husband’s family tradition, she remains their wife unless her dowry is formally returned — a situation that has left her in a form of customary marital limbo.
“As you see today, I’m still their wife. I didn’t get a divorce,” she said.
“If I get a divorce and he [a future husband] returns their dowry, then I am no longer a wife there.”
Regina also revealed that her first child was taken from her based on this same tradition, though she did not disclose further details about that aspect of her experience.
Regina Chukwu is best known for her roles in Yoruba-language films despite hailing from Enugu State.
She began her acting career in the early 2000s and has since featured in and produced numerous films. Widowed at a young age, she raised her two children as a single mother.
In December 2022, she celebrated buying a new house, saying it marked a major milestone after years of hardship.
