Multi-award-winning gospel artist Asu Ekiye, popularly known as the “Prince of the Niger Delta,” has confirmed the end of his 28-year marriage to his wife, Kunemofa, in an announcement that has sent ripples through Nigeria’s gospel music community and beyond.
The 2001 hitmaker behind the genre-defining single “Woekilemo” broke the news via a public notice posted to his Facebook page on Thursday, August 20, ending months and, by his own account, an entire year of private reflection on the matter before going public.
In the statement, Ekiye struck a tone of composed resignation rather than acrimony, describing the dissolution as the natural close of a significant chapter rather than a rupture.
He did not explain what led to the couple’s separation, choosing instead to frame the announcement around personal growth and quiet acceptance.
Notably, he disclosed that the marriage had, in fact, ended a full year earlier, in 2025, and that the public silence since then had been a deliberate choice to allow himself space to process the transition before addressing it publicly.
The union, which began in 1998, had long been held up as something of a model gospel-industry romance. In a widely referenced 2018 interview, Ekiye had described how he and Kunemofa found each other outside the conventional rhythms of courtship and traditional dating periods but rather what he called an alignment of dreams, a fusion of spirituality, and an agreement of intellect.
He recounted proposing to her on the street, an impromptu gesture that he said left her nearly overwhelmed with excitement, though she reportedly took two weeks to give him her answer.
He had spoken of her then in glowing terms spiritual, intelligent, resourceful, motherly as a woman who satisfied every quality he had envisioned in a life partner.
Together, the couple raised four children over nearly three decades of marriage, years that coincided with the singer’s rise from a church music director and trained accountant in Port Harcourt to one of Nigeria’s most decorated gospel exports, with a discography spanning “Eniye,” “Dey by My Side,” “Seiyo,” “Miyebibo,” “Kareyo” (featuring Eben), “Ebikamo,” and “Yemiyemo,” among others.
For now, Ekiye has offered no further comment beyond his written statement, and it remains unclear whether Kunemofa herself, a public figure in her own right, intends to issue a response of her own.
The announcement has nonetheless become one of the more talked-about developments in Nigerian gospel circles this week, with fans and industry watchers weighing in on a partnership many had long regarded as a rare public example of enduring marital devotion within the faith-based entertainment space.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
After 28 years of marriage, gospel legend Asu Ekiye and his wife, Kunemofa, have parted ways. The union quietly ended in 2025, but he only made it public now, choosing to close the chapter with grace rather than explanation.
No reasons were given; what remains is the legacy of a relationship once celebrated as a model of faith, partnership, and four children, now recast as a finished chapter in a life still being written.
