Adekunle Gold drops a raw, honest warning about sickle cell and genotype, revealing the first thing he did before falling deeper in love with Simi was check her genotype.
Nigerian music star Adekunle Gold has made a bold and deeply personal statement about sickle cell disease and genotype compatibility, revealing that the very first thing he did before committing fully to his relationship with singer Simi was confirm her genotype, and that she is AA. He warned anyone living with sickle cell to put genotype before love — or risk bringing a suffering child into the world.
Adekunle Gold said it the way only someone who has actually thought about it deeply would say it. Not preachy. Not rehearsed. Just honest in that specific way that makes people stop scrolling and actually read the whole thing twice.
“If you have sickle cell, forget love. The first thing we did was know her genotype. She’s AA. It makes no sense to bring a child into the world and they’re sickly.”
That is the quote. And it has been everywhere since he said it.
For a celebrity of Adekunle Gold’s size to come out and say something that direct about sickle cell disease — not in a campaign, not at a health event, not with a ribbon pinned to his shirt — but just plainly, in conversation, from personal experience — that is the kind of statement that actually moves people. Because it did not come packaged. It came real.
What makes it hit differently is the detail he included. He did not just say genotype matters. He said the first thing they did — before the relationship went further, before the feelings deepened past the point of return — was find out Simi’s genotype.
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He put that information before everything else. Before how she makes him feel. Before what people would say. Before wedding plans and music collaborations and all the beautiful things that came after. Genotype first. Everything else second.
Adekunle Gold
Simi is AA. He said that publicly, without hesitation. And that one detail tells you the conversation they had as a couple was not a casual one. They sat down. They talked about it. They made a decision together about whether the future they were building was one that could be built safely. That is not a romantic story. That is a responsible one. And sometimes responsible is more important than romantic.
Here is the part that should make everyone uncomfortable. Nigeria has the highest sickle cell burden in the entire world — not one of the highest, the highest. The Nigeria Sickle Cell Foundation estimates that around 150,000 Nigerian children are born with the condition annually. The WHO has flagged this country specifically, repeatedly, as ground zero for one of the most preventable genetic diseases known to medicine. These are not abstract numbers — they are children. They are families. They are years of hospital visits, crises, pain, and in too many cases, early death. Adekunle Gold
And yet genotype checks before marriage and serious relationships remain something too many Nigerians still treat as an afterthought — something to sort out after the feelings are already fully in, after the introduction has happened, after the aso-ebi has been chosen.
By then, telling two people who are deeply in love that they are AS and AS is one of the most devastating conversations a doctor or a family can have. Adekunle Gold is saying — have that conversation first. Before any of the rest of it.
His words are going to land differently for different people. For those living with sickle cell, it is a reminder that their health cannot be an inconvenient detail buried somewhere after love has already made the decision. For parents, it is a quiet nudge to have the genotype conversation with their children early — not as a scare tactic, but as basic life preparation.
For young Nigerians navigating relationships, it is probably the most practical piece of relationship advice a celebrity has given publicly in a long time.
Adekunle Gold and Simi are one of Nigerian entertainment’s most admired couples — not because their love story is perfect, but because they have always come across as two people who are genuinely in it together, making deliberate decisions rather than just floating along on feelings. This statement fits everything people have always observed about how they move as a pair.
He could have kept this private. He could have let it remain between him and Simi and their doctor and never said a word about it publicly. But he said it openly, with Simi’s genotype included, in a way that essentially dared other people to have the same conversation he had. Coming from someone with his platform, in a country carrying the sickle cell burden Nigeria carries, that is not a small thing to do.
The reactions have been pouring in since the clip started circulating — young people saying it is the reminder they needed, others tagging partners and siblings, medical professionals sharing the post alongside genotype information, and a few people admitting plainly that they never had this conversation before getting into their current relationships and are now thinking hard about it.
He was not trying to be anybody’s health spokesperson. He was just talking. Just sharing something real from his own life the way people do when they are not overthinking it. But that is exactly why it landed the way it did. Real always travels further than rehearsed.
Should Nigeria make genotype testing mandatory before marriage — and did Adekunle Gold’s words make you think differently about this? Drop your take in the comments and share this with at least one person who needs to read it. Adekunle Gold
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