I stayed 18 months in the womb, Antar Laniyan recounts birth story

Nollywood actor and director, Antar Laniyan, has explained the unusual story behind his name, saying it came from the strange circumstances surrounding his birth. He revealed this during a recent appe...

Share :

Published 6 Dec 2025

By Musa Adekunle

Antar Babatunde Laniyan

Nollywood actor and director, Antar Laniyan, has explained the unusual story behind his name, saying it came from the strange circumstances surrounding his birth.

He revealed this during a recent appearance on Behind the Fame, where he spoke about his delayed delivery and how the incident shaped his identity from childhood.

According to him, the delay in his birth caused fear among relatives and made his family seek traditional advice after hospitals could not provide answers.

He said his mother later followed a recommendation that eventually led to his arrival.

“I overstayed in my mother’s womb; I stayed 18 months, according to her,” he said.

Laniyan explained that his mother was advised to eat a creature known as Anta in Yoruba, described as smaller than a crocodile but shaped like a lizard.

He said his birth followed shortly after she ate it.

“She was advised to eat Anta, and after eating it, I was born within an hour. So my mother didn’t see anything wrong with adding that thing to my name,” he said.

He added that he later adjusted the spelling of the name in primary school after classmates made fun of it. “When I got to primary school and my friends were playing with the name, I added an R to make it Antar,” he said. The veteran actor said the story reminds him of the sacrifices mothers make and why their roles should never be ignored.

“There’s a story behind it, and I like telling it at times because I want every individual to know the importance of having a mother: a good mother, a great one,” he said.

“The kind of things that our mother passed through before they gave birth to us individually, we do not know because we were not there. But when a mother goes into telling you how you came to be, you will weep for yourself.” Laniyan, who began his acting career in 1981 and studied Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, has featured in several notable productions and directed the first episode of Wale Adenuga’s Super Story in 2000.

In a separate interview in 2018, Laniyan spoke about how he balances his family life with the demands of acting. He said fatherhood taught him responsibility and the need to remain present for his wife and children despite the pressure of constant film engagements.

He explained that he deliberately created time for his family to prevent his wife from feeling neglected, noting that his work often kept him away from home.

The actor said his major fear before marriage was not having enough time for family because of his passion for the craft.

Laniyan added that he relied on discipline learned from his father to raise his children, stressing that he preferred talking to them rather than using physical punishment.

He said he kept a diary to plan his movements so he could rest and spend time with his family whenever he was off set.

Guardian Life