‘I sold everything to survive’ — Tito Harrison reveals cost of liver disease battle

Tito Harrison, the Nollywood actor, has recalled his severe health struggles, which pushed his faith and resilience to the limit.

In a recent interview on the Talk2b podcast, Harrison recounted how his life changed dramatically when he began suffering from persistent nausea and loss of appetite.

The actor said medical tests later revealed liver complications, marking the start of a grueling health ordeal.

He said his condition left him in a three-day coma. The film star revealed that his son, then four years old, would visit him daily after school, silently watching over his “unconscious father”.

Harrison described the emotional moment he woke up and saw his son by his bedside. He said he broke down, pleading with God not to take his life, knowing his death would devastate his family.

“I have always been supportive of upcoming actors. I was warned. And things were going until God said ‘I have come to test you the way I tested Job’. I started feeling nauseous. I was losing my appetite. Getting to the hospital, I was told I had liver issues. I am not good with years. My son was 16 now, but he was around four then. The thing got so intense that I was in a coma for three days,” he said.

“When I woke up, I saw the young boy at my bedside. I looked at him side by side. He did not talk to me. I was told he would come to my bedside after school, leave his school uniform, and start looking at me.

“When I woke up, I wept and said God, if you decide to take my soul, a lot of people will be disabled by this pain. This boy will not forgive me if I die without assisting him to become somebody. My daughter was at home. She was not coming. The mother would say ‘you do not go? Daddy would not die because he was a good dad.

“Maybe their spirit sustained me. I do not know. I give thanks to God.”

Harrison also credited his wife as his pillar of strength throughout the ordeal. He said she stood by him despite losing their possessions, including land and an unfinished house, to cover medical bills.

“The luck I had was my wife. It is good to have a good wife. If I come back to life, I will marry her again. Everyone left me, but that woman stood,” he added.

“I did not know how the children would have gone to school. Within that time, I couldn’t eat, and my lung ulcer came back. A very chronic ulcer that would kill me. I was managing two ailments.

“We sold everything we had. We sold the land that I had. I was almost completing my house. And when we could not pay hospital bills, we sold it too. We took the children to their own mother. We later moved into my mother-in-law’s place.

“In this industry, some people granted me interviews and said it was over for me, and I was living with my in-laws.

“I dated that woman for 10 years before marriage. Our daughter is 20 years old. I have lived with that woman for 30 years. She is the only person I have seen.”

Harrison is known for his roles in Yoruba-language films.

He rose to prominence in the late 1990s for his roles in films like ‘Ogo Ipin,’ ‘Ire Aye,’ ‘Okun Emi’ and ‘Asiri Owo’.

—TheCable

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