When Divorce Goes Public: Media Disclosure, Audience Engagement and Identity Reconstruction among Nigerian Celebrities

Abstract

When divorce becomes public, Nigerian celebrities face more than the end of a marriage. They also have to manage how the experience is disclosed, interpreted and incorporated into their public identities. This study examined how selected Nigerian celebrities communicated marital separation, how audiences responded to these disclosures, and how the resulting public conversations shaped identity reconstruction. Guided by Social Learning Theory and informed by self-presentation, media framing, impression management and parasocial engagement, the study adopted a mixed-methods design. Quantitative data examined the relationships among media disclosure, audience engagement and identity reconstruction, while qualitative analysis drew on a documented corpus of celebrity statements and social media posts, selected Nigerian entertainment reports and audience responses across Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube. The qualitative materials were coded thematically around disclosure, media framing, audience judgement, self-presentation and identity reconstruction. The findings show that celebrity divorce developed through a connected process rather than as a single disclosure event. Celebrities used different strategies to present their marital breakdowns, but media coverage expanded and reframed their accounts, while audiences responded through sympathy, criticism, blame, speculation and support. Audience engagement subsequently created social pressure that encouraged further clarification, selective disclosure and changes in public self-presentation. The findings therefore position media framing as a mechanism that shapes interpretation, audience engagement as a mechanism that converts disclosure into public judgement, and impression management as a mechanism through which celebrities negotiate and reconstruct identity. The study concludes that public divorce is an important site of identity negotiation in Nigerian celebrity culture.