Veteran Nollywood actress Joke Silva has revealed that her late husband, Olu Jacobs, was the one who advised her to retain her maiden name after their marriage.

Silva made this known during an appearance on Stephen Akintayo’s Leadership Podcast, where she discussed her marriage and career.

According to the actress, Jacobs understood the importance of branding and believed changing her name could affect the professional identity she had already built as Joke Silva.

“He was the one who actually advised me not to because he understood the importance of branding,” Silva said.

“He was like, my brand has started building as Joke Silva and changing brands several years after one has been using that brand, as far as he was concerned, could cause problems for me.”

She explained that they therefore kept Joke Silva as her professional name, while people within their social circle knew she was Mrs Jacobs.

“So, we kept the name Joke Silva as the brand but within the circles, there was nobody who didn’t know I was Mrs Jacobs. It really didn’t matter,” she said.

Joke Silva and Olu Jacobs married in 1985 and remained together until his death at 84 on September 16, 2026.