Claim: Nollywood Stars, Saheed Balogun and Fathia Balogun set to remarry

Verdict: Misleading! The original claim emerged from a clickbait headline in 2022 and has been in circulation since then

Full Text:
Years after the separation and eventual divorce of Nollywood stars, Saidi Balogun and Faithia Williams, their relationship has continued to make the news.

Saidi Balogun and Faithia (born Faith Williams) got married on September 7, 2000, in Lagos, Southwestern Nigeria, after which she adopted the surname, Balogun, and changed her first name to Faithia, to reflect her adoption of his Islamic religious beliefs.

They had two children together before their marriage hit the rocks in 2006. Whilst they remained apart following this rough patch, they did not officially separate until a Lagos High Court dissolved their marriage in January 2014, after Saidi filed for divorce on grounds of irreconcilable differences in April 2013. However, Faithia kept his last name, which had become a major part of her brand, until 2017, when she reverted to her maiden last name, Williams.

However, in recent times, speculations that the celebrity couple are getting back together have been rife.

Snapshot of the Facebook post with the controversial screenshot

 

On February 29, a Facebook page with 19k followers as of the time of filing this report, SEUN Adeboye Authentic PAGE, posted a screenshot on their wall with the following caption;

“BEST NEWS OF THE YEAR, 

“WONDERFUL STORY OF LOVE, 

“NA ME GO HAPPY MOST. 

“MAKE TWINS COM ENTER. 😛”

The screenshot was that of a post purporting that celebrity couple, Saidi and Faithia Balogun, were coming back together.

 

Screenshot shared in the Facebook post. Source: SEUN Adeboye Authentic PAGE

 

The post reads:

“Congratulations Ooo Oluwaseun” – Nollywood Stars, Saheed Balogun and Fathia Balogun set to remarry (See Photos)

Upon filing this report, this post had garnered over 18k reactions, 5.1k comments and 380 shares. Well-wishers swarmed the post, revealing their delight to learn of the stars’ purported decision to reunite after several years apart.

 

Snapshot of a Meta verified page propagating the misinformation on Facebook

 

10 hours later, another Facebook page, BolakanmiBlog Bolakanmi Oladayo-Oladoja, which has a Meta verification badge and over 33k followers at the time the report was filed, made a post using the same collage and caption in the screenshot shared by the aforementioned page. And, at the time this report was being filed, the post had ammassed over 1.7k reactions, 474 comments and 31 shares.

Owing to the virality of the claim and its persistent resurgence, PEN PRESS fact-checked it to lay it to rest once and for all.

 

Verification:

Upon subjecting the screenshot to a reverse image search, PEN PRESS found several sources for the different images in the collage, featuring media mentions dating as far back as February 2020, when the former couple, Saidi and Faithia, who share a February 5 birthday, celebrated their 53rd and 51st birthdays, respectively.

PEN PRESS also did keyword searches using the social media listening tool, CrowdTangle, which revealed that the unfounded rumour had been in circulation on Facebook since February 7, 2022, two days after the Nollywood actors marked their 55th and 53rd birthdays, respectively.

 

Snapshot of the post that began the misinformation wave

 

The rumour originated from a certain page, Gossipinfo Entertainment, which has over 1 million followers as at when this report was filed. The page shared a link to its blog post, published on the same date and entitled “Nollywood Actor Saheed Balogun and Fathia Balogun set to remarry (More details Within)”, with the following caption:

“Faithia Zenabu Williams married Saidi (also known as Saheed) Balogun in Lagos on September 7, 2000. When Saheed Balogun married Fathia, who had just recently begun her career in Nollywood, he already had 22 years of acting experience under his belt.
“Saidi had already married Sherifat (Serifat) Balogun, and this was”.

 

Snapshot of the blog post that the claim came from

 

Upon examining the blog post, PEN PRESS discovered that the blog deliberately misled the audience with the headline to gain clicks. The content of the blog post offered an account different from what the headline suggested, establishing, unequivocally, that the couple was no longer together and going further to suggest that there was no reconciliation in sight.

In the concluding paragraphs of the post, they revealed that “Someone created another rumour in 2014, this time claiming Fathia and Saheed were reuniting. Faithia did not refute them, claiming in one of her interviews that she was still Saidi’s wife, technically. Nonetheless, Saheed came out and definitively disproved them, therefore ending any prospect of them reuniting”, adding that “the couple’s divorce papers were leaked to the media not long after”.

 

Final paragraphs of the original blog post

 

However, unsuspecting fans have continued to propagate the misinformation campaign out of their love for the couple, wishing they truly reunite.

CrowdTangle analysis of the keywords revealed that, between February 2022 and the time of filing this report, over 290 public posts have been made by Facebook pages, generating over 166.3k interactions across several periods where the misinformation resurfaced and enjoyed media traction.

 

Snapshot of CrowdTangle results on the keyword search

 

After initially trending on Facebook and pooling around 12k interactions between February 7 and 9 in 2022, the misinformation campaign regained traction in August and October 2022, pooling over 1.5k and 3.4k interactions, respectively. The trend hit an all-time high on Facebook between April 23 and 28 in 2023, when it grossed over 53k interactions from public posts made by Facebook pages. These figures do not include posts made by personal accounts and those in private or public groups.

 

Snapshot of X post propagating the misinformation

 

In June 2023, the wave also hit X (formerly Twitter) as a user, who, as this report was being prepared, has a Twitter Blue badge and 37.7k followers, made a tweet using the following words: 

“BREAKING 💥
“Actress Faithia Williams And Saheed Balogun Set To Re-marry ❣️❣️”

At the point of filing this report, the post has garnered over 227.2K views, attracting 149 reposts, 55 quotes, 1,939 likes and 14 bookmarks. Beyond that, it also served as material for blog posts, including some from GbExtra Blog, Eighteen-Eleven Media and Intel Region, which jointly accounted for over 1.8k shares across Facebook, as estimated using the social media analytics tool, SharedCount.

 

Snapshot of the results from a Sharedcount analysis of some blog posts that promoted the misinformation

 

Conclusion:

PEN PRESS can conclude, based on available evidence, that the claim that Nollywood Stars, Saheed Balogun and Fathia Balogun are set to remarry after being apart since 2014, is misleading, as it emanated from a clickbait headline.

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