TV host Grace Ekirapa: Why I broke up with my fiancé one week after traditional wedding

Television presenter Grace Ekirapa has revealed why she broke up with her fiancé one week after their traditional wedding, which took place in March 2018.

Ekirapa, who spoke to Switch Television last Wednesday, said she called off her wedding plans because the marriage, according to her, wasn’t going to be bliss-filled.

The Crossover 101 host on NTV said she got into her immediate former relationship without investing so much emotion in it, because she was “hurting” from her previous love-life, which lasted four years, ending acrimoniously in 2017.

Terming her break-up before the new relationship as “rough”, Ekirapa said she had seen herself getting married to her then-lover.

“[Following the break up], I was numb and in zombie mode a better part of 2017,” she said.

However, barely a year later, she got into a new relationship, which ended after so many signs of commitment on her lover’s end were exhibited, with no reciprocation of the same.

“In 2018, I was to get married on my birthday, which was April 27. I got engaged in February [that year], and in March, I had my traditional wedding,” Ekirapa said on Chat Spot show.

With a month left to her wedding, Ekirapa said she had a conversation with God, who indicated to her that she should terminate the relationship.

“I realised I was going to make a big mistake; I was going to get into something I hadn’t thought through. [I believe] it wasn’t God’s idea for me. I was going to get into something and hurt someone who did not need to be hurt.

“The guy was in love [with me]. He was my very good friend, but [I felt] we were not going to be okay as a married couple. Because I had been hurt [in my immediate former relationship], I jumped into something… a new relationship, which was a rebound [born out] of pain. I was like rebelling against being hurt. I was like: ‘God, I have waited all these years [to be someone’s wife], then this (break up) happens. I am still going to get married [nonetheless]'.

“I wanted to prove to people that I can get married! My traditional wedding in March [2018] was attended by at least 400 people.”

The TV host, who is also a professional counselling psychologist, said she felt the need to break things off before it was too late to do so.

“The week after my traditional wedding, I had a conversation with God. I said: ‘I can lie to everybody, but I cannot lie to myself and I cannot lie to God’. I took a break for two days, and went to pray. In my prayer, I told God: ‘Give me only one of these two answers: either you tell me that you would give me so much love for this guy; that I would go back knowing that this is it, or you give me confidence to go and break it off’.”

The media personality said God indicated she should end her relationship with her then-fiancé.

“I did not see myself living with someone yet I was not fully committed to the marriage. He is a great man. The thing that hurt me was that I was going to put this man through pain because I had been hurt; he did not deserve it. So, I came back [after the 2-day break] and asked him to meet me, and I… broke it off.

“Thereafter, hell broke loose! I got backlash from everyone, I was called all kinds of names, my social media [pages] were blowing up. People did not understand, but they had an opinion.

“If God knew that people’s opinions would matter [in life], He would create us with a blank page on our backs, and a pen hanging so that everywhere you walk, someone can write something he or she thinks of you on your back,” said Ekirapa.

According to the TV host-cum-musician, people were judging her without knowing or attempting to seek her side of the story.

“No one knew what I was going through, no one cared. They cared about their perspectives and what they thought was right according to them; they did not care about me,” she said.

The healing process, according to Ekirapa, took some time.

“I took a break; I stayed in my house for a whole week crying, not eating not sleeping,” she said, adding that her friends and family provided a strong support system, which helped her get over her guilt.

Asked to reveal whether she is currently dating, Ekirapa said: “I am where I need to be; I am [at] the happiest [point] that I have ever been, and the sky can only be the limit.”