Ore Oduba blames secret porn addiction for 'destroying' his life
Former Strictly Come Dancing star Ore Oduba has revealed he's been battling an addiction to porn since he was a child and blames it for "destroying" his life.
Ore Oduba's secret porn addiction was "destroying" his life.
The former Strictly Come Dancing star, 39, has revealed he's been battling the issue for three decades but he finally escaped the clutches of his addiction 18 months ago and he's convinced his obsession with online pornography took a massive toll on him both personally and professionally.
During an appearance on the We Need To Talk podcast, Ore said: "Shame kept me silent for 30 years. It took me 30 years, two deaths, and a divorce to finally go: here’s what’s happening."
He went on to explain: "I was nine when I was introduced to pornography. That’s when my addiction started. While I wouldn’t say the addiction set in immediately, the intrigue started immediately 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 ...
"It was the thing that was destroying my life from the inside out. But it was a thing I was running to from an early age as a response to the trauma."
Ore explained he kept his addiction secret for years and never told his loved ones because he felt so ashamed.
He said: "For a couple of decades, I was creating a version of the person that I thought I should be. But this creation of a perfect life, the hashtag couples goals was what was winning. So you need to perpetuate that."
Ore is father to two children - son Roman and daughter Genie - with his ex-wife Portia, who he split from last year, and the TV star insisted he's speaking out now about his problems in a bid to prevent other youngsters being sucked into a toxic online world.
He said: "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.
"This is, I believe, one of the biggest problems we have societally. There is such a prevalence. When we hear that 60 per cent 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."
