Nollywood Actress, Destiny Etiko said she started acting after she was influenced by her mother who had a short career in the movie industry
By Kehinde Okeowo
Nigerian actress, Destiny Etiko, has denied the allegation that she made her money from dating men who are rich rather than from her acting career.
The 32-year-old refuted the accusation in a recent interview with PUNCH, saying she does not take those linking her achievements to men seriously.
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She however said apart from her acting career, she also made money from other sources such as endorsement deals.
She said, “It is funny because I work for my money and I get good endorsements. If it is easy for men to give one money, then go and collect money from men. I work, make my money, and some people appreciate me.
“I just got an endorsement deal with a Chinese company that deals in sanitary pads and baby diapers. When I achieve something tomorrow, people would say a man gave it to me.
“Let them keep talking. Even if I don’t achieve anything, it is still the same people that would say after all the films I have been acting, I have not done anything for myself. I don’t want to take it seriously.”
She went on to say she took after her mother who had a brief stint in Nollywood and added that her decision to take her to movie sets influenced her decision to join the industry.
“My mother, Eucharia Etiko, started acting in 2004. She did not act in major roles and her acting career lasted for just three and half years because it was difficult for her to go on set and come back at night to attend to her family. Whenever we were on holiday, my mum would ask me to follow her and hold her bag whenever she was shooting.
” I followed her on three occasions and I featured in some cameo roles. I had minor roles as an adult too but I finally got a better role in 2012. 2015 was my breakthrough year as I started receiving regular calls from people who wanted to feature me in their films.” Destiny Etiko said.
The Nollywood star also said her childhood became tough when her dad lost his job after he was wrongly accused of stealing company’s money and her mum had to abruptly end her acting career to take care of the family.
“Growing up was not easy. My father was a headmaster doing well and at some point, he worked with a firm as a treasurer where he was accused of theft after the money he was asked to take to the bank was stolen by armed robbers who attacked him on his way.
“My father had to pay for money he never took. It was an issue as we had to move out from the flat we were living in into a ‘public’ house. My mother had stopped acting and we started living off the proceeds of the shop my father opened for her.” she added.