Nigerian dancer and former Big Brother Naija star, Roseline Omokhoa Afije, popularly known as Liquorose, has revealed that her journey to the reality show nearly didn’t happen in 2020.

In a recent podcast interview with VJ Adams, she shared that she had been set to participate in BBNaija 2020 and was even backstage for the launch, fully made up and ready, but the organisers prevented her from entering the show.

“In 2020, I was backstage at the BBNaija opening show. I was dressed up, makeup done, but I was not called. That really hurt me,” she recalled.

Liquorose and fellow potential housemate Jaypaul were barred from participating that year after testing positive for COVID-19, a setback that left her feeling depressed and questioning her dream.

She admitted that she almost skipped auditioning the following year but was persuaded by a friend to give it another shot. “That experience was messing with me. So the following year, I didn’t even want to audition, but my friend convinced me to try. I just auditioned and forgot about it. One day, I checked my spam folder and discovered I had been selected. It was crazy,” she said.

Liquorose went on to become the runner-up of Big Brother Naija Season 5 in 2021, narrowly missing the grand prize to Whitemoney.