Imagine being known by millions of people yet feeling like you cannot speak for yourself, or like nobody hears you even when you try. That is how entrepreneur Sophia Momodu says she felt after becoming pregnant outside marriage for one of Africa’s biggest music stars, Davido.

Sophia and Davido welcomed their daughter Imade on May 14, 2015. Davido, whose real name is David Adeleke, later confirmed through DNA testing that he was the child’s biological father, and their relationship, along with the arrangement to raise their daughter together, has remained a frequent subject of public discussion in the years since.

Rather than simply adjusting to motherhood, Sophia found herself at the centre of public judgement, and being a pastor’s daughter made the weight of that judgement even heavier. She said she is a pastor’s daughter who got pregnant out of wedlock by a global superstar and was mocked for it, calling the experience crazy, and adding that she had to find her strength in the middle of it all.

Speaking during a panel on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, the entrepreneur explained why the pregnancy carried such a heavy stigma for her. She said that for Nigerians, it is almost taboo for a pastor’s daughter to have a child out of wedlock, and that the judgement went far beyond simple discomfort.

Over time, she said, that judgement began to drown out her own sense of self. She explained that she was famous and popular, yet somehow still without a voice, since the negativity around her pregnancy kept overshadowing everything else about her.

In 2024, Davido filed a case at the Lagos State High Court seeking joint custody and unrestricted access to their daughter. Sophia disputed his claims through her lawyers and maintained that she had been responsible for Imade’s welfare, turning their private matter into yet another public chapter in a relationship that had already drawn years of scrutiny.

Sophia also recalled how an aunt once told her that someone had advised silence, insisting the subject was simply not something Black women were meant to discuss openly.

Eventually, she chose to speak anyway. She shared her story publicly in South Africa, including on radio, and said she was struck by what followed, as many women came forward to tell her they had lived through something similar. Those encounters, she said, reshaped how she saw her own experience, turning what once felt isolating into something she realised countless other women understood firsthand.

Sophia has previously spoken about battling postpartum depression after Imade’s birth, and has since channelled parts of that experience into advocacy work supporting women and children through the Precious Jewels Foundation. Her remarks in New York offered a rare glimpse of the woman behind years of headlines, one shaped less by her connection to Davido and more by what she has chosen to overcome.