Emotional Ore Oduba opens up about parenting struggles with baby son Roman

BBC presenter Ore Oduba has opened up about the first time he managed to fed his newborn son Roman after months of struggles.

Appearing on ITV’s Lorraine this morning, the 32-year-old Strictly Come Dancing star welled up as he spoke about fatherhood.

Praising his wife Portia, who gave birth to their first child earlier this year, Ore said: ‘I’m so lucky to have Portia because she is the most incredible mother, almost immediately that [maternal] instinct kicked in. As a dad you're there as a support.’

He then went on to describe the first time he felt like he really bonded with his little boy, saying: ‘We tried for weeks to get him to take the bottle [after breastfeeding]. The first time he took the bottle and looked at me, it was like he looked at me for the first time. I was torn up. I'm going to be tearing up at everything he does.’

The Strictly winner became emotional as Lorraine showed a video from his Instagram account which he posted after he had given his son his first successful feed.

He captioned the clip: ‘One for the Dads... Shouldn’t be such a big deal BUT IT IS!!! 🍼🍼🍼 thank you @portiajett for keeping the faith... Roman buddy, we bloody love you!!! 💙 #perseverance.’

In the video, which was posted on April 29, Ore explained that no one apart from Portia had been able to feed Roman.

“That is an empty baby bottle and I haven’t been able to do that until this weekend. Basically for the last three and a half months, Portia’s just been feeding him. He hasn’t taken the bottle from anybody else and he has fought blood, sweat and so many tears against anybody who has tried,’ he said in the black and white clip.

Ore continued: ‘This weekend we have now completed three successful baby bottle feeds with me holding him. I tell you it wasn’t easy, the first one was awful, but he took a bottle. Earlier today he had a bit of a fight but then he took it in the end and then just now I had a really lovely bath with him and for the first time he actually looked at me like he trusted me and I gave him the bottle and he looked at me the whole time.’

Ore and Portia welcomed their bundle of joy into the world on January 9, and have kept fans updated over the past few months with several adorable Instagram posts.

Words by Kirsty McCormack