Karen Afua Panyin Kane, a prominent stylist and owner of Kash Boutique, recently expressed her views on marriage and pregnancy during an interview on Just Being Us with MzGee.
She believes that expecting a child shouldn’t be a reason to rush into marriage.
Reflecting on her own experiences, Karen shared how she raised her daughter alone after her boyfriend abandoned her during her pregnancy while she was living in the United Kingdom.
“For me, I met this guy, and we were dating, and I thought we were free to do anything, and I also thought that, you know, we were in this together me and him but it turned out that I was in this all by myself,” she said.
Initially, Karen contemplated terminating her pregnancy, but the timing of the appointment made it impossible to go through with the procedure “One time, I decided to go to my sexual health nurse and book an appointment to have an abortion. The date they gave me if I had gone to do an abortion on that date my daughter would have been six months in my stomach, and it would have been impossible,” she explained.
Now happily married, Karen revealed the societal challenges she faced as a single mother. “Being pregnant is not a valid reason to marry someone,” she asserted.
She emphasized that becoming a single mother is often unplanned and can lead to unexpected strengths. “Pregnancy is not a good enough reason to be married to somebody,” Karen opined.
“I have always said that being a single mother is not something you plan. If it happens to you, it is not a bad thing. One advantage of being a single mother was the fact that I felt I had to work hard to prove to somebody that this is what you missed out on or something,” she added.