I found this Naija woman an enigma to watch and an even more alert and absorbing person outside the house. She is as shy and soft-spoken as she portrayed herself in the house and swears she would make a horrible actress, an opinion which I completely disagree with.
Here’s how our lengthy uninterrupted conversation went. [
Part 1 begins]
Segs: How are you feeling today?
Goldie: I feel fine, thank you very much. I feel very well (
Smiles shyly)
Segs: You were very fragile on stage last night – What were your emotions after you left the stage? (
Question from Tashi)
Goldie: I was a bit overwhelmed by it all, you know… having stayed in the house for as long as I did so I was, at first, disoriented… then, obviously, thinking of what would happen now that I am out. So my mind was in turmoil… a lot of things… (
smiles)
Segs: When you were on stage, you mentioned someone saying you “
disgraced your country”, when and who said this?
Goldie: I was standing there on stage with IK, I don’t know the guy, he was part of the audience and he looked at me very meanly and said that. It really hurt, you know. First and foremost, I don’t understand how you can say that about somebody being themselves.
Segs: Tell us about your eyelashes, are they heavy, is there any damage caused on your natural lashes? (
Question from Kijo)
Goldie: (
laughs) no, my eyelashes are not heavy, they are very comfortable. I feel very comfortable in them. it’s just something that I have always done… I have always liked… I think I was first famous in Nigeria for my lashes (
giggles)
Segs: You always looked so stunning after you took time to do your own make-up and hair. How and when did you learn to do your own make-up and hair?
Goldie: Thank you, very much (
smiles shyly)… I have never really learnt how to do anything (
giggles) things just… I guess… I am a bit gifted like that. I think at the end of the day, if you really have a passion for something then naturally come to you… so everything that I do is just natural. (
Smiles)
Segs: Why did you go on the show? What appealed to you about the big brother show?
Goldie: (
Smiles) I was approached. You know, by big brother. You know… as a celebrity housemate. And ah… I had never done anything like that before, you know… been… been on a show like that. At first, I was like… extremely nervous and I wasn’t gonna do it. Because, kind of a very, you know… even though my image portrays someone different, you know, outgoing… and uhhm… you know… I am actually a very reserved person so I was like “
mmm… mxxcc… do I really wanna put out myself like that?” but then my boss, the CEO of the record company that I am signed to said it was a good platform to promote my career. ..you know, in a large scale in Africa … and then my close friends; my friend and my younger brother … my family said it wouldn’t do any harm to go for it… then looking at it, I was like “
What could possibly be the worst that could happen?”(
smiles shyly) … you know, going into the house and you know, doing time. So I said, Ok let’s go for it (
smiles)
Segs: Did you watch previous shows?
Goldie: I have never ever seen an episode of big brother.. EVER… (
smiles) so, you know, me going in there, I was going in a bit blind really… uuuhmm… everything happened in such a rush, you know… I got to know that I was going to big brother 2 weeks before I was supposed to come down to SA… and within that 2 weeks I needed to like shoot videos… and I had tours that I was already booked for in Nigeria. So there was no time for me to even think “
oh, let me go try and see if I can learn about what it is or is not” …mxcimm, I never watched.
Segs: What shocked you during the first week?
Goldie: uhhhmmm.. you know, the first week you are still trying to get used to the environment and the people you are with because you don’t know them… also , you want to be careful because you don’t want to offend people…. Bearing in mind that we are all from different backgrounds, countries, cultures and we understand things a little bit differently so I was unsure of how to approach people and how to speak to them… you know, I think the culture shock and the change in environment, as well… having nowhere to communicate with anybody, eventually the big brother voice became my only friend… (
giggles)
The only person you could speak honestly to… (
laughs) Oh my god-o, this is how I am feeling, cause in the beginning you are like “
hhhmmm, who is big brother? What am I gonna say?”
Segs: During the first couple of weeks, you became close to Barbs, what caused you and Barbs to drift apart?
Goldie: Myself and Barbz actually were close until she left, well, in my heart… she knew my heart and I knew her heart… but coming out now, I realize the distance, you know… was probably caused by… you know, I don’t think that herself and Prezzo liked each other very much… and I was close to Prezzo, but I wasn’t aware of this dynamic… I… I was a bit mmxcimmm .. I don’t wanna use the word blind but I was a bit oblivious to that …
So I think But because I was close to Prezzo, it made it more difficult for her to… be close to me, like the way we would be.. but we were always cool, I loved her… and I love her still (
smiles) you know, she came to my hotel room last night with flowers for me. We hugged and she said that I am safe outside and Ok… (
Becomes emotional)… that was the sweetest thing ever. She is a sweet gal and I love her…
Segs: Why were you quiet when Prezzo attacked Barbz?
Goldie: I was not there when he was talking to Barbs. The night that he had the incident with Barbs, myself and Prezzo actually had an incident that night because I was frying him eggs … it’s a long story but I know you already know what happened… (
smiles)and he refused to eat the eggs even though I said I would make more and made more, he wanted more, but he refused to eat the eggs…
So I went to bed upset and then the next morning I heard that after I had gone to bed, there was this… and I called him and I said you need to apologise to her, you are not gonna call her names because if you can do that to another gal, it means you can do that to me… and I don’t see you as that sort of person, and he DID apologise to her the same day…
Segs: Do you think the apology was sincere, or he was just doing it to please you?
Goldie: Coming to know Prezzo, I don’t think he does anything he doesn’t want to do… if he didn’t feel like he wanted to apologise to her, I don’t think he would have… he is a bit like very determined in his actions like that… so…(
shrugs)
Segs: How would you classify your relationship with Prezzo?
Goldie: uuhmmm I came to care for Prezzo very much within the house… he helped me to cope with certain things… you know, I am a bit of a recluse like that… and a bit shy, and a bit like not overtly in your face… so because of that he was able to like bring me out of my shell… he always made me laugh, cracked jokes (
smiles shyly)… and I love laughing… so my relationship with him, I just came to care for him… because he made me feel happy, the times I spent with him… so 80% of the time I was happy, and the other 20% I was not with him I wanted to make it work. (
smiles) to be happy…
Segs: Were you attracted you to him or it just happened?
Goldie: From the first night we got into the house, myself and him struck up… you know, a friendship of sorts… because we talked about… I think himself and myself had something in common, we were talking about the music and our songs… he seemed like a quiet, calm person, you know.. from what I got from him that night… and he only got like … the more I got to know what I knew of him, it just seemed extremely… you, know I was attracted to the nature – the calm, quiet , thoughtful, intelligent persona… that he exuded…
Segs: Do you think having Prezzo in the house affected your game in any way, if you had any game to start with?? Could you have played any differently had you not found an attachment in the house? (
Question from carino)
Goldie: Carino uuuhhmmm (
laughs) having not watched big brother before I cannot say that I had a strategy, unfortunately… maybe I should have had one (
giggles)… maybe I should have planned but you can’t really have a strategy because you don’t know who you are going there to meet. You can’t have a plan for people you have not met and don’t know… you don’t know how they will react to your strategy, you don’t know the kind of strategy they have… I don’t think Prezzo affected my strategy because I didn’t have one… I mean, even after being out now…knowing some things I didn’t know were going on in the house, I still feel he helped my stay in that house.
Segs: Would you like to see him again and explore your relationship outside the house? (
Question from KatMo)
Goldie: uuuhmmm… he stays in Kenya, I stay in Nigeria. Uhhmm (
slight pause) Long distance relationships might not really work, you know… we are both really busy with our careers. It would have been something I would have loved to explore; you know... it just might not happen, who knows?
Segs: your emotions, was it all an act? You were too vulnerable to Prezzo and why did you keep going back to him seeing that you only met, what, eer 50 odd days. What made you go back to him? (
Question from Blueroze)
Goldie: What people see outside the house, people watching, is different from what people see or know in that house… within that house environment, other people might have known other things, but all I heard from Prezzo was how much he cared for me, how much he loved me, and how amazing a person I was. You know, people are different and people react in different ways to different things.
Based on what he said to me, I would never hold anything against him… I would never think he would intentionally be horrible to me. I would just believe we had misunderstandings and differences in opinions so if he apologized then I would accept an apology. It is against my beliefs to hold grudges and you can’t really hold a grudge against somebody that you are in the same house, if you know…
If we are outside, and you upset me then I can decide to avoid you and not see you for a month but if you are in the same house; why hold a grudge, why be horrible? Especially if the person makes you laugh. He is more or less the only person that… you have come out of your shell with… in the house, so to speak. So if he apologizes, and you don’t go back then – you just (
shrugs)… what are you gonna do?
Segs: The next day after you announced that you saved Prezzo, he nominated you; a few days later he was in your bed and chatting to you saying sweet things, how do you feel that Prezzo nominated you last week and will you continue trusting him. (
Question from makgotso)
Goldie: I never knew that Prezzo nominated me (
smiles) until I came out the house. That, I never knew… so obviously, if you know that … if I had known that or if someone had told me that then it would be (
giggles) definitely I would not be very excited…you know, if you don’t know and all you are hearing is how sorry he is that you haven’t been talking… and he wishes that things go back to the way they were, then… you believe what you hear, you believe what you see. (
shrugs)
Segs: Why are you always crying with your hands on your head, like in the Nollywood movies or is it just an act? (
Question from makgotso)
Goldie: honestly, honestly, honestly, I am a very emotional person in my space. Things do get to me. A lot of people don’t get to see that, because that’s in my home. Obviously I am not going to be on national television and be in tears, because there is no reason to be. You are talking to me about my music and my career, and there’s nothing to cry about.
But when you are in a house away from your normal every day routine, people deal with things in different ways... other people get drunk, other people gossip, other people have sex… probably my way of dealing with it was to cry out my pain of isolation, I don’t know why that happened. But I feel that’s who I am. You can’t act for 70 days. If I was like that in the beginning and I am still like that even now. It means it must be who I am.
Segs: What are your feelings towards Prezzo now that you know he backstabbed you? (
Questions from Kijo)
Goldie: uuhmm… I honestly don’t have anything against him. I think that if I said I was not hurt about it, I would be lying. I honestly don’t have anything against him because at the end of the day he is only human, and he is only trying his best also to get the prize. To make his country proud, make his family proud… and if that is his way of going about it then it’s fine but, for me, I would never hold anything against him.
Segs: You had a fight with Lady May about tuna and wine…
Goldie: (
laughs) No, no, no… I didn’t have a fight with Lady May… uuhm… Lady May wanted to order tuna, no no no … she wanted to keep the tuna in the house, and we had a lot of tuna already… we had so much food… and we wanted to donate to Downville, she wanted to keep the tuna… I was like not everybody really eats tuna, and she was like “
not everybody drinks wine either, so maybe we should give your wine too to downville”… (
giggles) so there was a back and forth, and I am not really a back and forth person really… I had to call her and tell her that if she felt offended by what I said, I did not intend to upset her… she should have said that “
I don’t like it, I think you are trying to mock me” instead trying to give away my wine… in the end, we kinda came to a mutual understanding… like I said in the beginning, the way you address people and them not understanding what you mean and stuff…
[Part 1 ends ]
[Part 2 Begins]
Segs: Would you consider it a fight?
Goldie: mmmxccc ha… I wouldn’t call it a fight, in my mind.. I would call it a disagreement that had to do with a miscommunication because she felt that I was trying to upset her by talking about the tuna. Incidentally the tuna, after DKB left… nobody has eaten tuna, and we don’t even order it anymore so the tuna is still there (
giggles)
Segs: What is your take on Zainab and DKB’s altercation?
Goldie: It was very painful. I sincerely loved DKB. I think DKB was a very open and extremely honest individual, he said how he felt to your face. You know, that sort of person that you could know… and Zainab was more or less the same, she said what she felt. So I think both of them just kinda like had that clash where when two parties are saying what they both feel. It was really sad.
I think that I felt guilty because I could have saved DKB from getting to that point if I was there when it started. I am able to calm him down and move him away because I remember when himself and Mampi were having a fight, I was able to like… you know, in a way I think my presence kind of like not escalate to what it could have escalated to. But unfortunately I was not there. So… (
shrugs)
Segs: Why did you cry and felt more sympathy for DKB instead of Zainab who had got hit, for being disqualified?
Goldie: It might look that way but it’s not that way. I am intolerant to any sort of violence against women. It was a tragic thing that shouldn’t have happened to either of them. I was closer to DKB because I had entered the house with him, and had come to spend 5 weeks with him before that incident. Zainab; I had spent about 2 weeks with her so obviously, even though I liked Zainab but I cared for her very much. She knew, or I am sure by the time she had to leave the house she knew that I had come to care for her very much but maybe it just didn’t translate physically… My feelings didn’t translate.
For DKB, I was more sad because he is a celebrity and the impact that would have his career – him hitting a girl. So I was concerned the backlash he would face back home, how this would affect his career, his fiancée, and he said something to me when he was leaving “
I am a dead man walking”… so that phrase got me really like “oh my god, I really hope … what does this saying mean?” those sort of things will get me bothered, but I felt for Zainab as much as I felt for him.
Segs: Were you aware of what was happening between Zainab and Prezzo?
Goldie: (
smiles) I had no idea. I was foolish (
giggles) very foolish (
laughs) yah but it’s ok.
Segs: You had no idea or suspected?
Goldie. No. I had no idea. Like I said I am a bit of a recluse like I am a bit of the “”
keep myself to myself” sort of person… uuhhmmm there was one day that I saw pink or purple lipstick on his lips and I asked him “what’s that?” and he said he was licking sweets he has kept in his bag that he brought from Kenya, he had forgotten the sweets were there… the first time I asked him we were in the lounge, Barbs was there and he said to both Barbs and myself that he was licking sweets…
Some time later it came to my knowledge that Zainab had actually kissed him, when I announced that I need him to be honest with me, I need him to tell me. And he still denied it, he said if he had kissed her that he would say and if she did maybe it happened while he was sleeping, BUT he was never aware of it... I didn’t know. And I believed him, because I did not see the reason for him to lie about he did.. Because if someone makes a mistake, you say
“yes Goldie, I kissed her and it was a mistake. I am sorry about it”… I would forgive you because it was a mistake. But if you say “
yes, Goldie. I did it and I am not sorry about it” then of course, I won’t forgive you… so I expect that sort of honesty from people, so I didn’t know… No.
Segs: But now you know that he was fully awake and he encouraged it, how do you feel about it?
Goldie: yah now I know, yah now I know… uuuhmmm .. Honestly, I feel hurt. I won’t lie. If I could trade places with someone else, I wouldn’t treat people like that but you never know why people do things. Like I say people wouldn’t intentionally hurt people who are nice to them. But maybe there was a reason he did that… mxcimmm
Segs: What is your take on the Maneta and Roki fight?
Goldie: It shouldn’t have escalated to that level, there were a lot of people around where it was happening… people that could have stopped it from happening. So it’s always shocking to see that people have quarrels and all the people that are there are just sitting and watching on, I cannot sit down and watch people quarrel and the fight to disintegrate to that level… and even when Roki came into the room, to like pour something on Maneta; I told him to leave the room. Why would he do that? Why would he do that? But already Maneta was … I did not know that they had had that … pouring things on each other outside… before even the room incident.
I really liked Roki, I thought he was an amazing individual. Roki always said something nice to me every day, in that house (
smiles shyly) Maneta was a nice person but I just felt that the way that she played the game, you know… and obviously I think (
sigh) there was a bit of chemistry or tension between the two of them so I think that also might have had a lot with what happened.
Because she also did not have that problem with any other person…. Mxcimm
Segs: When the Downville housemates came into the house they started taking over, breaking things and even started trying to get rid of the original Upville housemates, what is your opinion on Operation Downville takeover?
Goldie: It’s a natural thing when you come into a place and you see celebrities that have been bragging about how good Upville is for the last 2 months… and you know, Africa is gonna be voting for you against the celebrities who already have clout, a fanbase. It is necessary to try to get them out at least the weakest of them out before the end so that you stand a chance. I have nothing against them. I wouldn’t do the same thing if I was in their shoes because I am not that kind of strategic, manipulating, kind of person. (
giggles) What else could they have done? that was was the best they could have done, they could not nominate each other because they all came from Downville as a group against the Upvillers…
Segs: And the damaging of property, do you believe it was malicious, intentional or just accidental?
Goldie: I don’t think it was intentional. I just think that they were naturally just playful, a little bit mischievous… well, very mischievous and there was decided, in my view, a decided lack of care attitude whereas with the Upvillers; we always cared. They had the “
We’ve been doing this since Downville whatever” kind of thing but I don’t think they had malicious intent to it because they were always polite to me. There was never any time that they abused me or said anything rude to my face. So I don’t think they was any malice, they were always trying to be…(
giggles)
Segs: Well, except Wati?
Goldie: yes, yes, yes… Wati was extremely… huhm…. Wati is the only person that I can say was extremely rude to my face, but the only reason that I can give is because he had been told things about me, he had been pushed and co-erced to say that. He hadn’t known me enough to say that…
Segs: So do you think he was influenced?
Goldie: He was closest to Keitta and Keagan so and they are the only Downvillers that had been in the house before he got there… he got there on Sunday night and by Monday night, he was calling me names and goading me so obviously it was either of the 2 of them… (
shrugs) who exactly, I don’t know.
Segs: Keiita; the nomination reveal hit you quite hard… why were you shocked that he nominated you?
Goldie: I guess, in hindsight, uuhhhmm… it is either one of 2 things; either he still felt that I saved Prezzo with him before or he felt that I was a threat to him. When I listen to the reason that he gave saying that I was acting for the cameras, it didn’t sound like the real reason so he couldn’t even say that I had done something wrong to him. And so in hindsight, all I can say is that he carried a burning blazing torch (
smiles shyly)
But I was really shocked because Keitta would always come to me and say “
West Africa stand up, Goldie” (
smiles) and apart from Prezzo he was the next one closest to me so it was shocking to find that the person that I actually thought was closest to me … you know… It would have been understandable that after I had saved Prezzo he stopped talking to me as I would have known that he is hurt but I would make him food, he would ask me for food, he would ask me to make his hair… you know, wow…
so I mean if he was someone else (
giggles), like Wati’s nomination I was not shocked about it because I was expecting him to nominate me. When I heard I was nominated, I knew he had nominated me. You know what could happen, but Keitta was almost like (
shocked face) “
I would never nominate you, even if I was upset” just because we are from the same region, yah…
[
End of Part 2]
[Part 3 - still typing uhdikts, this was a long interview,.. bear with me....]