self-acclaimed Lover Boy, Felix Lebarty, who shot into national prominence in the 80s, with his debut album titled, “Lover Boy”, is a living testimony of how not to live a life of celebrity. While he was the man of the moment, he fathered 17 children from different women.
But since realizing his past mistakes after he embraced Christ and dumped his old lifestyle few years ago, Lebarty is currently enjoying his marriage with the mother of his first-four children (two boys and two girls), Rosemary.
‘Have I enjoyed my marriage?’
I would say my marriage has been on and off for the past 17 years. But I started enjoying it recently when I started understanding what marriage stands for. For some of us, when we get married, we don’t understand the meaning of marriage and the kind of institution we are getting into.
So, a lot of us go into marriage out of lust. But when you now understand the spiritual value of marriage, it’s something that is so beautiful. When you are involved in it, it means that you are complete as a man. Marriage is a beautiful thing to experience by everyone. God cannot bless you when you are not complete. ‘What happened in the 17 years of my marriage?’ During the first few years of my marriage, I was walking in the flesh. Perhaps, I was not a reliable person.
When you are walking in the flesh, you see your wife as a hindrance or somebody that has come to disturb your life. You don’t actually like it. But by the time you begin to appreciate the spiritual value of marriage, you now begin to see her as your better half. You will appreciate the fact that she has come to fulfill your destiny. But why I said we have been off and on is because when we got married, we started raising children immediately. And it was myriad of problems all through. Problems because of lack of trust, seeing her as one’s slave, maltreating her because of the African setting.
That was the ugly experience I had then. When I travelled with her to the United States, it was a whole lot of problems and I left her for almost five years. After five years, we came together again and that was when we had our last child . Thereafter, we separated again for about four years before we finally reconciled now. But this time, we had to do court marriage and, after that, I started enjoying my marriage.
Though she’s based abroad, I am enjoying every bit of it now. Marriage is not a bed of roses, but it’s something that you really need God’s guidance and direction to sustain. ‘When I was ruling the airwaves in the 80s’ Marriage to me then was like a hindrance. It was like a burden to me. There was lack of understanding and respect for one’s partner. Though you are married, you are not faithful to your wife. That’s a dangerous practice that can destroy any marriage, it’s spiritual blindness.
