Strictly Come Dancing star Ore Oduba has revealed he has battled a porn addiction since the age of nine.
The TV star, 39, spoke to Paul Brunson on his podcast We Need To Talk stating that it was only 18 months ago that he ‘escaped my addiction’ and that it had ‘destroyed my life from the inside out.’
The father of two said he wanted to speak out now to highlight the issue of children seeing sexual imagery on social media.
An emotional Ore said: ‘This is me putting my life as it is on the line, to save my children and to guide anybody else’s children going into a world where at their fingertips, they can fall into something they never asked to.’
He added: ‘Part of me is terrified, the vast majority is terrified because I feel like, personally, for me, the rest of my life begins the day after this, as it’s a kind of a seminal draw-the-line moment.’
Ore said that he was first shown adult content on a computer by a friend’s older brother. ‘I remember being very intrigued and a feeling of eyes being opened. Whilst I wouldn’t say addiction set in immediately, the intrigue started immediately.’
Strictly Come Dancing star Ore Oduba has revealed he has battled a porn addiction since the age of nine
‘And it didn’t take long relatively speaking, for that intrigue to start running my mind over because at nine, at that age, you haven’t necessarily got full access.’
‘Wanting to find a way to address that intrigue, wanting to find ways of that awakening, wanting to replicate it or find it whether it was on television or in magazines.’
‘This is the problem with this form of addiction that even I could understand at 10. It’s so shameful. We can’t talk about it because there is a perceived nature to it that is everything that we hate, everything that we despise.’
Ore, who was bought up in Dorset, said his upbringing with his strict father meant he could never tell his family about his addiction, citing the example of one of his siblings being caught smoking at school.
He explained how his father, who lived and worked in Nigeria as a lawyer, told the family that should anything like that happen again that they would all be ‘removed’ from the UK and would be ‘educated and raised in Nigeria under his rule and his roof, for a nine, ten year old that is life over as you know it.’
Ore admitted his father, who died in 2023, ‘ruled by fear’ and growing up he felt like he had to hide his creativity as well as what he now understands to be his ADHD traits.
He explained that even when he reached adulthood the ‘shame’ of his addiction meant he never told anyone.
‘I already said the people that I love most in my life were the women in my life, the ones that stay. But what you’re seeing is so conflicting to that,’ he said. ‘The battle that I was facing didn’t become so overwhelming that it took over for what I knew to be true.’
‘I had two sisters, a mother that I loved. I knew I couldn’t share this with them because I knew it was so conflicting to the people that were most important to me. And so I have to, without knowing that I’ve fought against addiction, find a way to hide it. And it’s very isolating.’
‘It was something that I just knew to be me. Just a part of me. Something that I would always go to to feel. If you ever felt worthless, if you ever felt rejected. It was always a thing.
The TV star, 39, spoke to Paul Brunson on his podcast We Need To Talk stating that it was only 18 months ago that he ‘escaped my addiction’ and that it had ‘destroyed my life’
Ore, who was bought up in Dorset, said his upbringing with his strict father meant he could never tell his family about his addiction – pictured with his father
Ore said he wanted to speak out now to raise awareness especially as his own two children – son Roman, seven, and daughter Genie, four – get older.
‘The reason that I felt like I needed to speak about this is because I wanted to be able to guide my own children when it comes to it, when it comes to them seeing stuff that is going to be there.
‘They’re going to come across it in life, so many of life’s pitfalls, whether it’s drink, drugs, money. It’s something I knew I needed to address.’
He added: ‘This is, I believe, one of the biggest problems we have societally. There is such a prevalence. When we hear that 60% of children are finding it accidentally, that it is cropping up on iPads, that it’s just so normal. If we leave it, what’s going to happen is these children start self-educating.’
If you’re struggling with similar issues support can be found at The Naked Truth Project.
