Radio personality Joel Isabirye has revealed that he had to abandon a vary high paying job in the US just because of his former wife, singer Rebecca Jingo.
Isabirye, who was reacting to Jingo’s recent comments on their failed marriage, described his ex as an unappreciative wife, saying he made a lot of sacrifices to save their marriage.
He said among his sacrifices was turning down a job of a professor at a US university, after his wife saying she would be rendered jobless once in the US because all her work revolves around her mother tongue, Luganda.
“When we got married, Rebecca told me not to take up a highly paying job in America because she would not have what to do in the United States of America. I had got a job at an American university as a Professor. They were willing to take me and my whole family. My basic pay was more than all the income I get from what I do in Uganda in one month. The benefits were even more attractive. But in the interest of her opinion and the marriage I opted out,” Isabirye says.
He added: “She (was worried that she) could not find work there (US) bearing in mind that her career is radio (Luganda) and music (Luganda) yet she had to also work to look after her family through her income. While I thought she could still find a job in America or even study more to be able to access white collar jobs, I was conscious of the father’s aging condition and she needed to be near to him. I thought that was a reasonable argument and also believed that if you are married it is now a team not a one man affair, you have to make some adjustments basing on your spouse’s concerns.”
That’s how he called off the offer.
And, contrary to Jingo’s claims while appearing on NTV last week, Isabirye denied stopping the singer-cum-radio presenter from visiting her dad or family.
“I never stopped her from taking care of her father nor did I stop her from visiting her father. On the contrary, knowing that there could be a limit to how far Rebecca could support the dad, I regularly supported the dad morally and financially and even when they were doing upgrades to his modest home I made contributions to some of the furniture bought for the house. It is bad to expose how you help people. It is only necessary when a lie is told about you.”
And Isabirye also says he stop her from performing, but instead invested in her career. “In fact some of the songs she released after we started our relationship I actually financed as a show of support to her career. One of them was ‘Ndi Ntya’ recorded at Paddy Man’s studio. Radio Simba (Mandev), CBS Radio (Chris Luwugge), and Bukedde FM (Farid Mpagi) can all acknowledge that I moved to them to talk to them to promote Rebecca’s songs because I was in support of her career.”
On the collapse of their marriage, Isabirye said that it was inevitable because Jingo is a very violent person.
“A woman who takes a knife to stab the husband is not realistic because at the altar you pledge to protect your spouse not to injure them. Rebecca is violent. She has no problem throwing plates or cups at you or beating you up as the 16 house maids we had in eight months of marriage can testify. Some spent only one day at the home and took off because she was violent towards them. She was unbearable.
“So when I saw the knife I thought it was something serious. In April 2014 she had tried to cut me with a scissor at home over a small argument.”
Appearing on NTV’s ‘Mwasuze Mutya’, Jingo said that some of the reasons she left Isabirye, was because of ‘his highhandedness’. She claimed Isabirye had stopped her from visiting her family as well as performing.
However, Isabirye believes that all of this is a public relations campaign by the singer and radio presenter.
“I think Rebecca Jjingo is on a public relations campaign at the moment. Because these videos if they held merit would have come out in 2015, a few months after she left home full of anger for being told to be more open to her spouse and say where she would be going,” says Isabirye, who is currently married to another woman.
