Genevieve Magazine Interview with Richiki
in
Nigeria
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RICHARD BIG BROTHER AFRICA 2
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It is almost impossible to ignore him- fresh-faced and loquacious.
Was this the cantankerous male that made us cringe in Big Brother Africa 2?
Richard opens up on everything we’ve been dying to know…
Interview with Richard
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Q: Where did all that passion with Tatiana come from?
A: Lets look at the environment - very small, enclosed, cocooned and isolated - where you have to live with guys you know nothing about. At some point you realise you cannot survive with them or even without them ; what you do is find someone to lean on. So, in the house I was either with Tatiana or Code or Ofunneka. The others were playing against me. I think they were intimidated. I saw things differently from a lot of them.
Q: I remember that chat you had about wanting to get close to Tatiana. Was it a strategy that turned to love?
A: There was no strategy and i wasn’t in love! But what we had… whatever you’d like to call - was true. It’s the normal reaction you have when you are “locked up” with opposite sex. I wouldn’t call it love.
Q: What about Tatiana? Do you think she fell in love?
A: Honestly I cant speak for her… it’s difficult to say.
Q: What exactly was going through your mind all the while you were with Tatiana?
A: I knew my wife was watching. I knew I should have stopped but it had gotten to a point where I could not. I was psychologically unfit and weak. You know in the real world things are a lot less concentrated; one can go anywhere - for a movie or something. I could say I am tired at the end of a day and want to spend time with my wife, but there we didn’t have that freedom. One moment you are on the lawn, you think it`s safe, but the person walks in on you or you bump into them in the corridor, so things were very tense.
Q: Who were your favourite housemates?
A: Aside from the obvious, just Code.
Q: I am dying to know what you said to your wife to make her take you back.
A: At the end of the day it came to what we had before BB. I believe that if what we had was shaky or fake we would have moved on. It all came down to that whatever we we have now is because of what we had. Aside from the fact that my wife forgave me, I was willing to go back to my wife. So both of us had it in common because we knew what we had was social. We knew that marriage has its own challenges. We were both willing to give our relationship another try. I went back to her and said: ‘Honey please give me a chance… if you don’t think I am still that guy you knew before BBA, then you have the right to leave me…’
Q: If you had to do it all over again with all that you have been through and learned, would you do it the same way?
A: I regret what l did. If l had another chance, I would do things differently. I would take charge of my emotions if given the opportunity again…
Interview with Ricki
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Q: This is an open book: You saw all that Richard did - are you not bothered that those scenes may play out again in your marriage?
A: One of my weaknesses is actually trusting people, probably too quickly. But, I do know that the Richard I knew before BBA2 was an extremely committed husband and I never had any worries about him cheating on me. He was never the type who will go out to clubs, go drinking,or go partying. He was more interested in staying home and watching movies with me and if he had to to go out with his friends, he’d ask me to come along. He was such a committed guy. This was why all that happened in BB was such a blow to me, because I was so trusting and didn’t expect that to happen. But I realized that it was all under a very odd situation, not what we are normally used to. It was not like our marriage was weak and he went out in search of another woman - it was just an odd situation which is over now and the Richard l see now is even more committed than before.
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31 - 03 - 2008
