Milan Popov: I Suffered While Stoja Was Singing
Singer Stoja Novakovic's son broke down in tears on Elita 10 and sent his mother an emotional on camera message, saying he suffered the consequences of her singing career as a child.
Milan Popov, son of singer Stoja Novakovic, broke down in tears on the night between September 14 and 15 on the reality show Elita 10 and delivered an emotional on camera message to his mother. Informer and Telegraf both covered the scene, reporting that Milan was under the influence of alcohol when he lost control of his emotions during a conversation with his girlfriend, Radojka “Rada” Jovanovic.
Milan is almost 40, has three children and two marriages behind him. He entered Elita 10 a few weeks ago, and from day one his arrival has carried the story of his relationship with his mother, one of the best known singers on the domestic scene. Sitting with Radojka, he first told her how much she meant to him, then turned his attention to Stoja and to his childhood.
No matter what beauty walks in, Rada is Rada. Mom, it wasn’t easy for me. When you were singing and I was a kid, I suffered the consequences of that. I’m going to make sure I don’t embarrass you, that I stay the way I am outside and the way people know me. There’s no deeper reason I’m here than to fight for my kids. We all have the right to that.
Milan said this through tears, speaking directly into the camera. The message came in the middle of a conversation about Radojka, but quickly turned into a confession about growing up with a mother who spent decades as one of the most famous names in Serbian pop music. Milan made clear that he did not come into Elita looking for a scandal, but, as he put it, to show his children who he really is.
Did Stoja know her son was going into Elita?
Before Milan entered the show, Stoja spoke publicly about his decision to join the reality format and revealed what advice she gave him.
Get some sense into your head, that’s all I told him. Let him show what he knows and what he can do. He’s a man who’s nearly 40 with three kids. So as a mother, all I can wish for him is to stay alive and healthy. Everything else, my God, however he presents himself, that’s how it will be.
Srpske.rs recently reported on Stoja’s reaction to her son’s entry into the reality show, when she revealed she was the last person to find out about it. At the time she also explained in more detail why she does not follow Elita day to day.
I didn’t even find out right away that he’d gone in. I was the last one to find out, believe it or not. I don’t have time to watch it, and I don’t want to follow it either. He’s not the only center of my world. I have him, his kids, my grandchildren and my own life. A man who’s nearly 40 has to figure out on his own what he’s doing and how, and find his own way.
Stoja added that there is nothing she can forbid her adult son, who has two marriages and three children behind him.
Her words make clear that Stoja deliberately keeps her distance from her son’s participation in the show, while Milan, judging by last night’s confession, experiences that same distance as something that has marked him since childhood. That gap in perception, a mother who says she cannot forbid him anything and a son who admits through tears that it wasn’t easy for him, is now the main topic among Elita 10 viewers.
Since entering Elita 10, Milan Popov has mostly been talked about in connection with his relationship with Radojka Jovanovic, but last night’s scene revealed another side of his time in the house, the one in which he addressed his mother publicly and emotionally for the first time. Whether Stoja will respond to her son’s message remains unknown for now, and Milan has said he intends to behave the same way he does outside the cameras, so as not to, in his own words, embarrass his family.
