Ola, Dupe’s husband, now rich – beyond their wildest dreams, has alcohol as his albatross. She doesn’t always know what type of rabbit he’ll pull out of his full magic hat of embarrassments when he’s drunk. The last I witnessed was early this year when the family had a belated New Year party. As the guests left, well fed and merrily tipsy, Ola asked his house guests and a couple of us to finish things off at a night club near the house. I would rather have preferred to go home and sleep off a throbbing headache, but Dupe’s pleading eyes made me shrug and I left with the group. Ola was a bit tanked up by now. His speech was slurred but the problem with him is that he doesn’t know when he’s had enough booze.

My boyfriend and I have been together for almost 20 years and we have two children whom he takes full responsibility for. We’ve discussed marriage but he says with the high rate of divorce and the experience he’s had living in a polygamous home, he doesn’t want the hassle of a divorce if we ever split up. Everyone around me is married, but my man simply refuses. I feel so rejected, we don’t live together. Do you think he’s using me?

Last year, I started a relationship with a divorced mother of two, who is over ten years older and a woman of substance, who has helped me a lot in my career. In return, as I don’t have money to lavish on her, I help see that her kids get taken to schools, help wash her cars and run other errands for her. She has a group of highly sophisticated friends, who look at me with disdain.

I love my boyfriend, but when he wants sex, he wants it right away – whether I’m about to leave for work, I’m getting ready to meet friends or just in a hurry to get something done at home

I was madly in love with this man of my dream – he was well-educated, witty and handsome. But, out of the blues, he told me he wasn’t ready for a serious relationship and that we should revert to just being friends.