Nigerian singer and songwriter Johnny Drille has opened up about the beginnings of his relationship with his wife, Rima Tahini, revealing that the couple met while working at Mavin Records and successfully kept their romance away from public attention for nearly five years.
Speaking during an interview on The Right Hand podcast, Drille said their relationship began around November or December 2018, long before fans became aware that the singer was romantically involved.
According to him, he and Tahini deliberately protected their relationship from the intense scrutiny that often follows celebrity romances.
The singer said the public only became aware of their relationship in July 2023, by which time they had already married.
“We started dating in November-December of 2018 and I don’t think the rest of the world knew,” Drille said.
“They got to know in July 2023, and that’s about five years because we had gotten married.”
Reflecting on the length of time they managed to keep the relationship private, the singer admitted that maintaining such secrecy required considerable effort.
“I think about it now, and I don’t realise how much work we had to put into it for keeping it off the record for so long,” he said.
Drille’s revelation offers a rare glimpse into a relationship the couple largely kept away from social media and entertainment gossip despite his growing profile as one of Nigeria’s distinctive alternative and contemporary music voices.
The singer, known for his deeply emotional songs and understated public persona, had surprised many fans when details of his marriage eventually emerged.
His wife, Rima Tahini, has also been associated professionally with Mavin Records, where Drille said their paths first crossed.
For nearly five years, however, the couple managed to separate their private relationship from their professional lives and Drille’s increasingly public career.
The singer’s decision to keep the romance private stands in contrast to the highly visible relationships that often dominate celebrity culture, where personal milestones are frequently announced and documented online.
Drille suggested that privacy allowed the relationship to develop outside the pressure of public expectations.
By the time their marriage became public knowledge in 2023, the couple had already built years of shared history away from the spotlight.
His latest comments have now filled in some of the previously private chapters of that story, revealing that what appeared to fans as a sudden marriage announcement was, in reality, the culmination of a relationship that had quietly developed for years.
For Johnny Drille, the story is also a reminder that even in an entertainment industry defined by visibility, some of the most important parts of an artiste’s life can still unfold far beyond the cameras.
