A Nigerian man living in the United Kingdom has found himself unexpectedly raising five children alone after his wife left him just a day after he told her he wanted a divorce.
According to the man, he had been dissatisfied with his marriage and recently told his wife she was “very irresponsible,” expressing deep regret over marrying her. “Some weeks ago, I sat her down in our house and told her I wanted a divorce. I said I had made up my mind and would be moving out that week,” he recounted. He added that he had planned to continue sending money to support the children after leaving.
To his surprise, his wife appeared to take the news calmly. “She didn’t say anything. She just said, ‘Okay, not a problem,’ and nodded like she had been expecting it. She didn’t even beg me to stay,” he recalled.
However, the next morning, she turned the tables. Without any argument or warning, she packed her belongings, took her phone, and left a short message: “I’m going to Nigeria. I’m leaving the kids with you.” The man said she also took the children’s passports, preventing him from travelling with them.
The father described the sudden shift as overwhelming. “She didn’t care what would happen to me raising these children. I was stuck there by myself, shouldering all the responsibilities of a broken family she no longer wanted to be part of,” he lamented. His attempts to reach her family in Nigeria were met with silence. “I married a thief and a wicked soul,” he declared.
Adjusting to life as a single parent of five proved difficult. “I started feeling sick. I couldn’t even watch football or go out. These children—it’s like my wife told them to frustrate me,” he said, citing sleepless nights, tantrums, and constant mess. Relief came only when his sister moved in temporarily to help care for the children, clean the house, and give him a chance to rest.
Despite his anger, the man admitted he sometimes misses his wife and has even considered reconciling. “It’s like she never loved me or the children. Yet there are days I think about trying to repair things,” he said, noting that the children often cry and ask for their mother.
Social media reactions to his story were unsympathetic. On Threads, one user remarked, “Wait, he’s mad because she did to him what he was planning to do to her?” Another wrote, “He has no awareness that what he’s experiencing now is exactly what he wanted to leave her with permanently.” Others suggested it was his turn to experience the domestic load. “You know that man didn’t do a single thing for his kids before. She did it all. Now it’s his turn.”
