Real Housewives of Lagos star quits, says her castmates were never really her friends

• Carolyna Hutchings has announced her exit from The Real Housewives of Lagos after four years.

• The actress said none of her castmates is her friend despite their years together on the reality show.

• Hutchings said she is now focusing on her acting and production career, with 10 new projects in development.

Nollywood actress Carolyna Hutchings has announced her exit from The Real Housewives of Lagos after four years on the show, revealing that despite years of on-screen interaction, she was never actually close to any of her castmates off camera.

In a lengthy Instagram post shared on Monday, Hutchings said she was closing that chapter of her life for good, expressing frustration that a show which stopped filming new episodes in early 2025 has continued to define her public image well into 2026. 

"It is exhausting being part of a reality TV show in Nigeria," she wrote, urging the public and bloggers to stop linking her personally to the ongoing drama and disagreements involving other cast members.

Hutchings made clear that whatever closeness viewers may have perceived between her and her castmates over the years was never genuine. She described herself as an introvert who does not form real friendships with people on the show, on or off camera, adding that her kindness toward them shouldn't be mistaken for actual friendship. 

"None of the cast members is my friend," she said, explaining that she naturally gravitates instead toward people whose energy resonates with her own, outside the world of the show entirely.

She said the show had increasingly become something used to redefine her publicly, in ways that touched her career, private life, and even her identity as a mother, rather than reflecting who she actually is. "The show was a chapter of my life that I enjoyed. That chapter is closed. It is a new dawn," she wrote.

Hutchings joined The Real Housewives of Lagos as part of its original cast when the show premiered on Showmax in April 2022, alongside Iyabo Ojo, Laura Ikeji Kanu, Chioma Ikokwu, Toyin Lawani-Adebayo and Mariam Timmer. She sat out the second season before returning for the third, which moved to Africa Magic in January 2025.

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Beyond reality television, Hutchings has built a two-decade career in Nollywood as an actress and producer, appearing in more than 60 films and producing several award-winning projects through her production company, Afrivista Films. 

She said her focus going forward would be entirely on that side of her career, including ten new film projects currently in development.