Veteran Nollywood actress quit acting to raise her children, says she has no regrets

• Maureen Solomon says she voluntarily left Nollywood to focus on raising her children.

• The actress said she has no regrets about stepping away from acting at the height of her career.

• She also denied claims that her husband forced her to quit the industry.

Maureen Solomon-Okereke has opened up about the decision that made her disappear from screens at the height of her career, saying she has absolutely no regrets about walking away from acting to raise her children.

Speaking on Channels Television's Rubbin' Minds, Solomon-Okereke said the demands of motherhood made it impossible to continue taking movie roles after the birth of her second child.

"When I had my son first, it was easy. I could take him to work, movie sets and locations, but when my second child came, it was not that easy," she said.

She stepped away from Nollywood in 2011 at a time when she was one of the industry's most recognisable faces, having featured in over 80 films and risen to prominence with roles in Not Without My Daughter and Women Affair alongside stars like Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Nouah, and Ngozi Ezeonu.

Despite the sacrifice, she said she never looked back.

"Regrets how? I have a 20-year-old and a 19-year-old now. I don't regret it at all. It got to a point where my daughter was about 5 years and it wasn't just going well, so I had to stop and give my time to them," she said.

During her absence, there were insinuations that her husband had pressured her to stop acting. Solomon-Okereke denied this, maintaining the decision was entirely her own.

Now back in Nollywood after a seven-year hiatus, Solomon-Okereke said returning has been smoother than expected. She said she kept a close eye on the industry's evolution even while away, and her passion for acting never faded despite the years off screen.

She also pushed back on the industry's growing fixation with social media followings as a measure of an actor's value. "I don't believe in it," she said plainly.

Solomon-Okereke also revealed that her acting career started entirely by chance. She had gone to find her elder sister at an audition venue and ended up being handed a script herself.

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"The opportunity actually came on its own. I didn't go looking for it. They were giving people scripts to read, it got to my turn and I read, that was it. My sister went to check for her name and saw my name," she said.

She made her debut in the 2000 film Alternative, directed by Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, for which she was paid just ₦2,000.