'It Is Now Like Looking After My Father’ -Joke Silva Says Olu Jacobs’ Dementia Has Killed The Sparkle In Their Marriage

Nollywood actress, Joke Silva, has spoken out about coping with the reality and struggles that the sickness of her husband, Olu Jacobs, has brought upon their 42 year union. In 2021, the veteran actress had revealed that her legendary actor husband (who turns 81 next week) was suffering from dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), which has been happening for a couple of years. In a recent interview with media personality cum actress, Nancy Isime, Joke Silva disclosed that the illness has affected their marriage.

She however described her husband as an incredible father and an amazing husband, who didn’t fail in his responsibility. According to her, Olu Jacobs was practically her best friend and everything to her in their marriage, hence, in the journey of the current ailment, she sees it as taking care of her father. She then added that the love and affection she had received from her husband during their early years are no longer there, nevertheless, she still loves him.

Her words: “We have been married for 37 years but we have known each other for 42 years, we were dating for 5 years before we got married. It has not been easy, in the early years of our marriage, we didn’t even realize the marriage has started, it took a lot of acceptance because I was like why are you behaving like this? There was a point of acceptance for me that everything happening is reality and it is like the person I married, 80 percent of the time is no longer there. But the thing is this when he was there, he was an incredible father to his children and an amazing husband, he was practically my best friend. So in this journey of dementia now, is like I am looking after my father. The husband I knew is no more and there for me but this man that is here is someone I still love him”