Entrepreneur Sophia Momodu addressed a panel on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, speaking publicly about the stigma she faced years ago after becoming pregnant out of wedlock by Afrobeats star Davido.
Momodu told the panel that being a pastor’s daughter made the experience especially difficult, since a pastor’s daughter having a child outside marriage is widely considered taboo in Nigerian society. She said that despite already being a known public figure, she found herself mocked and drowned out at the time, and that for years afterward she did not have a platform to tell her own side of the story.
She also disclosed that a relative once reached out on behalf of someone close to her urging her to stay quiet about the pregnancy, on the basis that it was not the kind of thing a Black woman was expected to discuss openly. Momodu said the turning point for her came after another woman gave her a platform to finally speak, an act of solidarity she credits with giving her the courage to keep telling her story publicly.
What stands out in Momodu’s account is not just the mockery she describes, but who was never subjected to it. Davido, the man she names only as a global superstar in her retelling, built his career, released chart topping albums and toured the world in the same years she says she spent trying to reclaim her own voice. The pregnancy that reportedly cost her years of public shame barely touched his public image at all. It is a gap that says less about either of them individually and more about how differently Nigerian society still judges mothers and fathers in identical situations.
Momodu, who welcomed her daughter Imade Adeleke with Davido in May 2015, has since built a life beyond the relationship that first brought her public attention. She founded the Precious Jewels Foundation, which focuses on the intellectual development and wellbeing of vulnerable women and children, runs her own fashion and beauty brand, and previously appeared on The Real Housewives of Lagos. Her appearance at the UNGA side event followed the withdrawal of a lawsuit she had filed against Davido, which he formally dropped in February 2026 after a tense court session.
By taking her story to a global platform like the United Nations General Assembly, Momodu reframed a narrative that Nigerian tabloids have circulated for a decade, turning what was once used to shame her into a talking point about the uneven weight women carry in stories that technically belong to two people.
