“My mum’s absence affected my life” – BBNaija Hermes as he recounts his life growing up (Video)
Hermes Chibueze Iyele, a former contestant on Big Brother Naija, has revealed the significant impact his mother’s absence during his childhood had on his life as an adult.
Hermes shared that his father single-handedly raised him and his siblings, always emphasizing the importance of not harboring hate toward their mother.
This revelation came during his appearance on the latest episode of The Nancy Isime Show alongside his fellow contestant Phyna.
The reality star reminisced about feeling heartbroken when he saw other students’ mothers attending parent-teacher conferences, while his mother never showed up.
He said that he still feels the effects of his mother’s absence today and that it has made him more independent and self-reliant. He also said that he has learned to appreciate the time he does have with his loved ones.
He said, “One significant thing I think affected me a lot was not having my mum around. A lot of people think that me looking for my mum [when she went missing from a psychiatric center], with all the love that I did, she was so present in my life. No. She was absent my entire life.
“My entire life was just longing to. I will be in school. I will see people’s mums come for PTAs and whatnot, and I will just feel like, Oh! My God, my mum is so pretty, if she came here now, I would probably have like so many more friends. It never happened.
“The silver lining for me, why I still have love to give, is my dad. And I think something happened in the Big Brother show, I think we were sitting in the dining room, it was an argument about how men could not… Someone said men could not take care of children as much as women would love and take care of them.
I felt attacked by that because my dad raised me. He did a great job. He took care of really young kids. Got a bus to hustle and train us through school. It was a lot.”
Watch the video below.