If you're one of Africa's big media personalities like Toke Makinwa, chances are your story becomes every paper and gossip site's best piece of sensational news.
In her 14-chapter memoir, On Becoming, the Nigerian radio personality, television host, vlogger and bestselling author writes about her painful path through life.
I'm not one to read gossip sites but I love a good, quick read and this is what Makinwa's 112-page memoir offered in just three hours.
She tells how she watched her mother and father burn from a cylinder that had exploded in their flat. They died in hospital.
She was eight years old when she lost her parents and the tragedy changed her from being a bubbly child into a rebel, one who made wrong decisions about men.
She reveals her marital woes in the first chapter, titled Confession.
She talks about the roller-coaster ride of falling in love and finally marrying her husband, Maje. Makinwa and Maje were together for 15 years, married for six.
The romance turned sour after she discovered Maje's flight tickets to London to see "the other woman", which left her devastated. But she stayed in the marriage - she never really explains why.
The absence of a father figure in her life might have triggered that.
Maje mistreated her in as many ways as a man can when he wants to make a woman question her worth and break down her confidence.
Her desperation to want to live up to "the other woman's" standards led Makinwa to want to be like her, including lightening her skin.
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