JUST IN: Maria Chike Benjamin recounts her ordeals after BBNaija experience

Former BBNaija ‘Shine Ya Eye’ housemate Maria Chike Benjamin has recounted her ordeal after leaving the house in 2021, saying at a stage things were difficult for her mentally

The reality TV star opened up on her ordeal while featuring in this week’s episode with #Chude.

Maria also recalled how she was auditioned for BBNaija, describing 2020 as a very challenging year for her.

“2020 was a very challenging year for me. I was like, ‘What am I going to do next’, and I didn’t know much about Big Brother. I had few friends prior to 2019, who were encouraging me to go, and I was like, ‘No’. Later, I made up my mind because I knew I had future goals I wanted to achieve, and I thought, ‘maybe this is the platform that I needed’. I didn’t even tell my family I was going for Big Brother because they wouldn’t have known my real intention for being on such a platform because of the negative impression associated with ladies on such platform. To them, it will be ‘why do you want to showcase yourself on a reality show in Nigeria. The reality show in the UK is always trashy with people fighting, swearing at each other and all of that,’ and that is the image they would have had in their head,” she recounted

Continuing, she added “When I entered the Big Brother Naija house, I didn’t know what was going to happen afterwards. I didn’t even know I was going to move back to Nigeria. Everything was just like forced upon me. When I did come out of the house, I was at a stage of my life where things were difficult mentally. Dealing with the new ‘so-called’ fame, everything was just too much. I literally started to learn all over again at the end of 2021, when I left the house”, she added.

Maria also talked about her relationship with her late father after her parents’ divorce and how she was dealing with grief.