Strictly Come Dancing winner Ore Oduba has admitted he has become a better father since separating from his wife Portia Jett, despite initially fearing he could not raise their two children alone. The 40-year-old TV star, who won the BBC series in 2016, split from personal trainer Portia, 36, in 2024 after nine years of marriage. They share son Roman, eight, and daughter Genie, four.
In rare comments about his home life, Oduba revealed a heartbreaking moment early in the separation when he doubted his ability to parent alone. 'There was a moment at the beginning of my separation, I remember being with my kids... looking at them and thinking, I don't know how to do this,' he said. 'I didn't think I could be their dad on my own.' His fears were compounded by a remark from his mother, who questioned his capability. 'I remember my mum saying, it's not like Ore knows how to look after two kids,' he recalled. 'What she said really hit a nerve. It is the thing I was most insecure about.' He added that their relationship has since 'transformed one hundred per cent'.
Oduba admitted he had fallen into the trap of equating fatherhood with financial provision, a mindset he inherited from his own father. 'For me, fatherhood was all about providing, and I didn't have any of the other tools,' he said. 'I remember almost feeling like... I need to make more money. By spending time with my kids, I'm wasting the opportunity that I could be spending providing for them.' He described this attitude as 'screwed up' and said it changed during a recent solo holiday with his children to France. 'No one else to lean on, no one else to remember passports, no one else to change the money, no one else to check in, no one else carried the luggage. Just me and two four-footers,' he explained. 'At no point did it ever feel like it was too much. It just felt like the next thing I needed to do.'
The presenter described the trip as a transformative experience. 'We had the most unbelievable adventure. Three days, three nights of just full presence. I remember looking at my kids and seeing them for who they are for the very first time in their lives,' he said. 'And I remember seeing in their eyes, them seeing me, in this real wholeness. And just thinking, this is everything I've ever wanted. I never knew that this was possible.' Oduba, who sold the family home in Kent after the split, said the holiday marked the beginning of a new relationship with his children. 'That was the beginning of my relationship with my children,' he said. 'I'm really proud of that.'
