Nigerian singer Flavour has opened up about battling a masturbation addiction for more than two years after losing his virginity at the age of 24.
Speaking during a recent TikTok live session, the 42-year-old artiste said the struggle began after he lost contact with the woman he had his first sexual experience with, leaving him without a romantic partner.
Flavour recalled that a man in his neighbourhood encouraged him to watch pornography, a habit he said eventually developed into excessive masturbation several times daily.
He added that the addiction took a toll on him physically, saying it affected his appearance and made him too self-conscious to take off his shirt in public.
“After I lost my virginity at 24, I started looking for the girl I slept with. At the time, there were no phones. She gave me her email address, so I kept going back and forth to the cyber café, sending her emails and checking for replies, but she never responded. Eventually, I gave up,” he said.
“I didn’t have a girlfriend. Apart from a few childhood crushes, I’d never been in a relationship. After the girl disappeared from my life, a guy from my street advised me to get Makoka Kamasutra CDs.
“I bought them. Whenever everyone had gone to sleep, I would play the CDs and watch them. I would prepare myself by bringing a bowl, an old cloth and some liquid soap (Morning Fresh). I was masturbating three times a day. I became heavily addicted.
“I started losing weight and became too ashamed to take off my shirt in public.”
Flavour disclosed that he eventually sought help from his mother’s pastor, as he could not confide in his immediate family.
“I needed someone to talk to, but I couldn’t speak to my father, mother or sisters. So, I went to my mother’s pastor, who offered guidance and counselling. I waited until everyone had left before telling him I had been searching for someone to confide in and felt led to speak to him. I told him everything. He gave me prayer points, Bible verses to read every day, and instructed me to fast for 21 days. I was happy because I thought it would solve the problem,” he added.
“Then Friday came. We went to perform on stage, and I saw girls dancing. I ran into the toilet and masturbated. It felt like I was back to square one. Eventually, I gathered the courage to speak to one of our band members, an older Cameroonian man who played the bass guitar. He asked how long I had been struggling with it, and I told him it had been about two years.
“He said the reason I kept masturbating was because I wasn’t sexually active. He took me to a brothel, introduced me to a woman, and arranged for part of the money I was sprayed during our performances to be used to pay for the visits. Since we performed every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, he made sure I visited the brothel on those days.
“Those women were the ones who taught me how to have sex. After that, I stopped masturbating. Back then, if I had seen blessed anointing oil, I probably would have used it as lubricant.”
Flavour is not the first celebrity to speak publicly about struggling with masturbation.
