Legendary Nollywood actor, Jim Iyke has slammed the backlash that trailed his controversial birthday tribute to his colleague, Kate Henshaw. In his Instagram post, Iyke expressed deep admiration to the celebrity Henshaw while expressing his past crush of romantic feelings for her, reflecting on their early days together in Nollywood. He wrote, “You knew all that time I wanted to hit that,” he wrote bluntly in the emotional post.
His post elicited mixed reactions, from fans, including his colleague, Gideon Okeke berating him for “disrespecting” the actress on her special day.
Okeke claimed Jim Iyke’s post contained “too much information.”
However, addressing the backlash during his recent interview with 3FM 102.7 Ghana, Jim Iyke insisted that there was nothing sexual about his birthday tribute to Kate Henshaw.
According to him, his post was“wordplay” and there’s mutual feeling between him and Henshaw.
He explained, “I meant everything I said in that post. I rarely say something I don’t mean. I don’t waste words. My words are my bound. I have known this person for over two decades of my life. We have grown as friends and as brother and sister.
“What happened was a wordplay that was told in a place of a comfort zone that only two people or less can cohabit. Because these are words that either resonate clearly in your head and never find expression through your voice; you carry them forever and one day you said, ‘F**k it’, take a pen and let the word have a glimpse of how you feel about certain people.
“I know the feeling is mutual. There’s nothing absolutely sexual about it [the birthday tribute]. It doesn’t even suggest someone I’m dating.”
He concluded that it was an honest expression of his feeling.