Prominent Ghanaian journalist, Israel Laryea, has broken his silence on the recent online controversy involving his wife, Louisa Laryea, and GHOne TV journalist Lily Mohammed.
The disagreement began after Lily Mohammed criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for allegedly issuing a Ghanaian passport to American streamer IShowSpeed .
Louisa Laryea responded on Facebook, but her post was widely criticized for being harsh and containing remarks perceived as body-shaming, drawing reactions from social media users, including media personality Nana Aba Anamoah.
Amid the backlash, Israel Laryea shared his perspective in a facebook post, emphasizing the importance of context and interpretation.
“Louisa and I have had conversations about her post that went viral and caused a troll storm, and I got her to appreciate a few things—one of them being that there’s one thing about what you say and another about how people interpret it,” he wrote.
He added, “While you may feel free to say what you wish, you cannot necessarily control how people understand it. There’s also how people would choose to spin it to suit their own narrative.”
Louisa, he explained, never intended to body-shame anyone and did not aim to imply that Lily Mohammed had altered her appearance.
“If Lily felt offended, sorry, but that was definitely not the intention,” Israel said.
Addressing critics who commented on their marriage or Louisa’s appearance, Israel expressed support for his wife, noting,
“Really? This woman right here, at 52 years, after giving birth to three children, is ugly? Create a human—let’s see how you fare.”
He also called out those who joined the online trolling, stating,
“What real friends will do is reach out privately to obtain context or seek to correct if necessary. I’ve never trolled or joined trolling of a friend and would never do that.”
He concluded with a heartfelt message to his wife: “Stay well… and to you, Louisa, I love you always.”
