I Never Wanted This: Regina’s Mother Breaks Her Silence
By: Abudu Olalekan
The internet is a messy place. And right now, it’s swirling with rumors, accusations, and a whole lot of drama surrounding actress Regina Daniels, her husband, Senator Ned Nwoko, and her mother, veteran actress Rita Daniels. It all kicked off again with a viral video. A shocking one. Regina, in the clip, accused her husband of domestic violence. The internet, of course, exploded.
Ned Nwoko was quick to respond, his camp denying everything. They didn’t just deny it; they flipped the script. Reportersroom gathered that his side claimed Regina’s struggles weren’t from abuse, but from drugs and alcohol. He pointed out, rather coldly, that none of his other five wives had ever complained. It was a messy, public he-said-she-said.
But lost in all this new noise is an old story. A story about a mother who has shouldered the blame for years. People have called Rita Daniels everything under the sun. They said she sold her daughter. That she pushed a young Regina into a marriage with a much older man for money and influence. It’s a story that has followed her, a dark cloud over her relationship with her daughter.
Well, Rita is finally talking. And her version of events? It’s not what you think.
In an old interview with BBC News Igbo that has now resurfaced, Rita laid it all bare. She wasn’t the mastermind. In fact, she claims she was the last person on earth to know about their relationship.
“When Regina got married, and the world was saying I was the one who forced her to marry a much older man… they said I carried her and sold her to an elderly man,” she recounted, her voice heavy with the memory. “What they did not know is that even I did not know when they started the relationship. I was the last person to know.”
Imagine that. Your own daughter, and you’re out of the loop. She said she had to confront Regina, to ask what was really going on. The conversation didn’t go well. “My daughter, who never used to throw back words at me, started throwing back words,” Rita said. She noticed a change, a new stubbornness. “And then I was like, ‘What is actually going on?’”
To make things even more complicated, there was politics. In the political terrain, the husband and I are opponents,” she revealed. So it wasn’t just about age. It was about rivalry. According to Rita, Ned didn’t even approach her about marrying Regina until after his political campaign was over.
By then, Regina’s mind was made up. What’s a mother to do? “Immediately after the election, it was then that her husband told me he was interested in marrying my child. I was weak, but what was I to do?” she asked. “I stood with my daughter, was I to chase her away?”
So she did what mothers do. She stood by her child. She advised her, but ultimately, she let her make her own choice. And she decided to take all the heat. All the nasty comments, all the accusations. She’d rather it be directed at her than at Regina.
“Do I leave them to heap blame on my daughter?” she questioned. “So it is better for me that they heap the blame on me, tear me apart, and call me all sorts of names. I will rather take it. What matters to me is that my family is at peace.”
It’s a powerful statement. A mother’s shield. As this new storm rages, her old words ring even louder. It was never about what she wanted. It was about a daughter’s choice, and a mother’s decision to protect her at all costs.
