On November 21, 2018, Mona Ombogo said her divorce and childhood experiences helped shape the talk show she launched in August 2018, Life with Mona. The online series, she said, was built to confront subjects many people avoid, including relationships, sex, spirituality and purpose.
Ombogo said the idea came after years of feeling a pull back toward the film and storytelling world she had loved since childhood. She described the show as a space for honest conversations and personal lessons, with each episode designed to challenge attitudes and beliefs that people often inherit without questioning them.
She said the programme is split into two parts. The first, which she calls “MonaLogues,” features her own reflections and lessons from what she described as her long 40 years. The second brings in an expert to unpack the episode’s theme. In one recent edition, she hosted Maurice Matheka for a discussion on “the other partner.”
Ombogo traced her confidence back to growing up mostly in Swaziland, where she lived as one of six children and was the fifth-born. She said being Kenyan in a foreign country made her value her identity more deeply, while her parents encouraged her to embrace difference rather than fear it. She recalled childhood play-acting, including pretending to win an Oscar for “Best Original Screenplay” while speaking to chairs and tables as her audience.
Asked about the end of her marriage, she said the relationship broke down because she and her ex-husband struggled to communicate in a way that worked for both of them. According to her, the problem was rooted in different family backgrounds and different ways of handling conflict. She said she preferred discussion and persistence, while he tended to shout when angry, which made her withdraw.
“Our issues were never resolved,” she said, adding that the problems accumulated until communication between them collapsed completely.
On what she would tell a woman considering separation or divorce, Ombogo urged honesty and planning. “Do it. Don’t be afraid to admit that part of your life has served you up until now but it’s time to walk away,” she said. She also advised women to make a plan, speak to trusted people and proceed as amicably as possible. Citing relationship coach Barnabas Achoki, she repeated the view that when divorce or separation is on the table, “the worst has already happened” and there is no need for enmity.
She said the reaction to Life with Mona had been strong and encouraging, with audiences responding to the show’s direct approach. In her view, people want truth and are ready for more open conversations in families and in society.
Financing, she said, has remained one of the main challenges in digital content creation. Even so, she credited filmmaker Anderson Marendes with pushing her into doing Life With Mona, while Ledama Sempele helped bring Film Crew In Africa on board to lift the production to a more professional level.
Ombogo also spoke about her writing career, saying she has authored two books, V for Visa and SoulFire. She said she began writing as a child, produced her first 12-page story at nine, and later wrote two romance novels in high school, though the manuscript was lost. She said SoulFire began when she was 17 and was only published in her 30s after several revisions. V for Visa, she said, is a Nairobi romance about a young woman whose visa to join her fiancé in the UK is denied, and she is now working on a sequel.
She named Oprah Winfrey as one of the women she admires, saying Winfrey never allowed her background to limit her and kept asking what comes next. For Ombogo, the lesson is to keep moving, keep adjusting and keep changing with the music.
Her answer to the final question on her life mantra was not included in the source text.
