David Oyelowo stars in the A United Kingdom and the storyline was very personal to him. Not only is his wife in real life, Jessica, white (she also appears in the film) and there is the interracial marriage parallel but Oyelowo is actually royalty. He shares:
The story meant so much to me which is why I spent quite a bit of time trying to see it come to fruition. Actually not for the obvious reasons, yes Jess and I are in an interracial marriage, but my dad actually is from a royal family. He’s from the Yoruba tribe and he married my mom, who is Igbo and a commoner, and they had to elope to the U.K. to get married because it was frowned upon in Nigeria. I grew up with stories of that, it’s on a much smaller scale than what happened with Ruth and Seretse, but yes, it is something I am sort of familiar with.
(l to r) Jessica and David Oyelowo, both have roles in A United Kingdom movie. A film personal to them. Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages
