When Kenyan singer Jovial sat before her phone camera this week, she did not share a polished music clip or a playful update. Instead, she opened a window into one of the most difficult seasons of her life — new motherhood.
Her words were unvarnished. “Wallahi kama una roho ndogo, don’t ever get pregnant. Kulea will humble you. My goodness,” she said, her voice heavy with exhaustion.
Jovial described sleepless nights, endless feeding sessions and the physical pain of breastfeeding. Her baby, she revealed, is struggling with both colic and congestion. “Hakuna kulala, because when the baby wakes up, you have to wake up as well,” she explained.
The star also admitted she finds it hard to let anyone else help. “I don’t want anybody to touch my baby,” she said firmly. “I am okay, willing, and able. I want to take care of my baby myself.”
This honesty marks a departure from her first experience with motherhood, which she said was less challenging. Now, she finds herself stretched to her limits — physically, emotionally and mentally.
Her openness follows an earlier revelation in August about her traumatic delivery. “My body is completely broken, broken into small pieces, and I don’t know how to put the pieces back,” she wrote in a social media post. Jovial described enduring eight hours of labour, dilating to nine centimetres, before finally undergoing an emergency caesarean section.
The experience, she admitted, has left scars that are still fresh. “I’m still traumatised, you can even see it on my face! Anyway, God is my strength and I want to go on this healing journey calm and quietly,” she wrote at the time.
Yet, despite the pain and sleepless nights, she ended her latest message with something unexpected. Her spirit, she insisted, is not broken. “Frankly speaking, I’m still going to have another one,” she said, smiling through the struggle.
Her story, told in her own words, highlights both the hidden trials and quiet resilience of motherhood. It is a reminder that behind the music and the spotlight is a woman navigating the same raw, human journey as many mothers around the world.
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