I blame Ayeni Adekunle for my separation from 9ice — Toni Payne

IT’S six years since the marriage between Nigerian singer, 9ice and his wife Toni Payne packed up. Ms Payne, who has since moved back to the US, has opened up like never before in a phone-in interview with Gloria Maduka and Terrel of Inspiration FM, Lagos, and she inadvertently revealed another angle to the saga.

TREND’TAINMENT confirmed, that Toni called in on the Lunch Time show from California and alleged that the wedding separation press release sent out by 9ice’s publicist at the time, Ayeni Adekunle started the rumour. Ayeni, a former THISDAY and Punch journalist, is the founder of Nigerian Entertainment Today. He also runs popular PR agency, BlackHouse Media which worked for many A-list entertainers before rebranding and focusing on corporates in 2009. Reacting to how she felt when the rumours of her alleged affair with Ruggedman broke out courtesy of 9ice’s controversial song ‘Once Beaten Twice Shy’, Toni Payne said, ‘It started out really annoying, then it went from annoying to frustrating, because if you listen to the song carefully you can tell that it’s not me he described in the song. It felt like a horrible dream and it kept growing and people were actually taking it seriously’.

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When it all started I felt the rumour could have been killed faster with social media because that’s how it was spreading, and at that point I approached 9ice’s then publicist, his name is Ayeni. I don’t want to call anybody my enemy, but I consider him an enemy because I see him as someone who started something and didn’t finish it’. Back then when they put out their little press release talking about me and 9ice splitting up, I warned them not to put it out that if there’s anything happening internally, let’s solve it internally, putting it out there gives the public the right to put their mouths in it, but Ayeni convinced 9ice that he had to put it out, all because he wanted to sell THENETNG that was when he started the website started.’But they went ahead and put out the release behind my back anyway.

So I was sitting down at this restaurant with my friend and we started getting messages about me doing this and that, so I called Ayeni and was like you guys started this rumours please fix it, and he was like madam we’ll do it and he never did. ‘I expected him to use the same enthusiasm they used in releasing the first news to also use in killing it, but they never did, instead he continued to use it to promote THENETNG, but today where’s the paper, they ended up packing up and I’ve said it that every single person that felt they were profiting from the rumours back then, God will catch them one by one, and that’s what’s been happening’.(Nigerian Entertainment Today rested its print publication in 2015. But the newspaper continues to run as a fully digital multi media platform, with sister journals and products now including newsroom.ng, star.ng, Orin.ng and the TV platform NET News. NET also organizes the annual Nigerian Entertainment Conference whose fourth edition holds in Lagos on April 20).

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Asked if she can truly forgive 9ice, Payne says she’s ‘a very vocal person, when I took to my website to write that open letter, I did it really and truly because I’m done with that saga and another reason was to encourage people in similar situations. It’s the best thing to do. ‘She however confirmed that she would not be getting back to 9ice. ‘No I’m not, I’m definitely not going back to him’ she said. 9ice has since tendered an unreserved apology to his ex-wife, using a legally-worded open letter that raised many eyebrows. Ayeni told our reporter he ‘has no comments’.