Judith Austin and Yul Edochie have two children together, however Yul Edochie has maintained that they are not married.
He insists there is no officially recognized union between them and claims their connection is solely based on skit-making.
Yul, 42, made this claim in his court file, according to May Edochie’s legal team, which is managed by Emeka Ugwuonye of Due Process Advocates. This information was disclosed on Sunday in a video address and statement.
In August 2023, May filed for divorce from her spouse; the specifics of the court case were kept under wraps.
According to Mr. Ugwuonye, Yul and Judy took credit for the unexpected setback in the current case in the FCT High Court, Abuja, which was scheduled for a hearing on March 5.
Given this, Mr. Ugwuonye, who had previously concealed the case’s specifics, is now required to reveal the events as they are happening.
May’s attorney outlined the case’s progress and emphasized what he believed to be Yul and Judy’s defense approach.
He noted that they claimed to be skitmakers and denied ever having been married, insisting that their partnership had no official legal legitimacy.
More denials than ever before
May’s attorney expounded on Yul’s declaration, describing the actor’s denial of his marriage to Judy.
He claimed Yul wrote, “That Gistlover, as a negative blog that thrives on fake and manipulated information for financial gains, has been negatively exploiting every movie or skit featuring me and Judy and generating social media traffic for financial gains,” in response to the news of Star’s birth in June 2021.
According to Gistlover, May’s initial appeal brought attention to a purported traditional marriage ceremony that Yul and Judy allegedly had on April 24, 2022, in Anambra State.
Yul vehemently refuted the accusation in response, attributing it to the Gistlover blog’s dissemination of misleading material in order to profit financially.
Yul and Judy maintain that the traditional marriage ceremony that was referenced in May’s petition was a fabrication, fueled by the blog’s love of bogus news.
Yul and Judy are married and have two kids. Judy and Yul received a son, Star Munachimso, in November 2021. It has been rumored that the couple has now welcomed a girl.
May’s attorney states that the accused duo intends to contend that their social media posts and videos constitute a skitmaking endeavor, drawing comparisons with well-known skitmaker Oga Sabinus, who is renowned for his humorous material.
Requests and replies
Additionally, Mr. Ugwuonye provided some information on the petition that May had filed as well as pertinent passages from Yul and Judith’s answers.
MAY: Petition (10)xviii
On Thursday, April 21, 2022, the Respondent (Yul) left Lagos for Enugu. On Sunday, April 24, 2022, the Petitioner learned again via social media (Gistlover Blog) that the Respondent was getting married to the Party Cited (Judy) in her hometown of Anambra State at the time the information was posted. During the trial, the petitioner will depend on this suit’s publication.
YUL’S REPLY
The Respondent (Yul) asserts that the Gistlover blog publication was fabricated and was fueled by Gistlover’s enterprise in disarray and bogus news. She vehemently disputes paragraph 10 (xviii) of the petition.
Gistlover, a negative blog that feeds on false and manipulated information for financial gain, has been negatively exploiting every film or skit that features the Respondent and Co-Respondent and driving social media traffic for financial gain ever since the news broke of the birth of the Respondent’s child with the Co-Respondent in June 2021.
JUDY’S RESPONSE:
The Co-Respondent (Judy) asserts that the aforementioned Gistlover blog publication was fabricated and was fueled by Gistlover’s enterprise in fake news and pandemonium, and she vehemently disputes paragraphs 10 (xviii) & (xix) of the petition. On April 24, 2022, or any other day, there was no customary marriage ceremony between the Respondent and the Co-Respondent (Yul and Judy). Hereby, the Co-Respondent provides the Petitioner with the most stringent evidence of such.
Bigamy
DPA attorneys said that May first thought about filing a bigamy case against Yul after the latter announced his second marriage. Bigamy is the crime of marrying someone when you are still lawfully married to someone else.
She allegedly chose not to pursue this legal route, though, because she was afraid that, should the case succeed, her husband would wind up in prison.
According to May’s attorney, this led to a change in tactics. Rather than that, May chose to go after adultery damages against Yul’s purported adulterous girlfriend, Judy, through a divorce.
May’s attorney stated that following their son’s passing, she turned to going to court to seek legal redress.
The attorney went on to say that May felt forced to contact the police as a result of threats and abusive behavior from her estranged spouse, as well as Yul’s requests for intimacy since he had a second marriage.
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Despite rumors going around on social media and in some blogging communities, May did not file a bigamy lawsuit against Yul, according to the DPA family law office.
He said: ‘‘Each time bigamy was mentioned, she asked, “Will they arrest him?” And we would say: “Most likely yes.” She would refuse to approve it. You can understand that. Despite what Yul did to her, she didn’t want him arrested.
“The only option left was for May to file for divorce and to sue Judy for damages for adultery. Even at that, she didn’t want to rush it. It took until after the death of her child and Yul’s subsequent behaviours for her to file for divorce. As I have stated earlier, once May discovered the relationship between Yul and Judy, May refused to allow Yul access to her. She refused to allow him to have any intimacy with her.’’
May’s attorneys claim that the false information was spread by a blogger who was supposedly influenced by Judy, who was claimed to be a relative of May’s.
The objective of the case, according to May’s legal team, is adultery as a reason for divorce and the damages that can be obtained from Judy, the accused adulterous partner.
May denies Yul and Judy’s claim that they had a marriage-like relationship, claiming instead that their bond was limited to making skits.
However, May is adamant that they erred.
“May Yul-Edochie has nothing further to prove. Yul and Judy admitted in their sworn statements that they had a child together. That is conclusive evidence of adultery, which is the basis of May’s petition. The law does not require a person to prove what the other party has admitted or conceded,’’ her lawyers said.
