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He had Rochelle Humes by his side while presenting This Morning and his Strictly partner Joanne Clifton when he lifted the coveted Glitterball. But the most important woman in Ore Oduba’s life is his wife Portia.
They began dating after meeting at a Loughborough University event in 2011. First came love, then came marriage [on 6 November 2015] and then came baby Roman [on 9 January 2018].
In their decade together, there’s not much the pair haven’t faced. The Strictly curse didn’t faze them and they coped with being apart when Ore, 34, went on the road for the tour just days after their son was born. But the couple admit to OK! that the past few months in lockdown have been tough.
They credit their history and two-year-old Roman for keeping them together. And when we catch up with them for an exclusive shoot at Portia’s family home, she has to ask husband Ore to stop embarrassing her with compliments.
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Here, Ore and Portia, 30, tell us the kind of world they hope their son will live in, and how they coped with isolation…
How have the past few months in lockdown been?
Ore: This has been the most challenging period in our entire relationship. There was a point where we were at loggerheads and I felt like I was in The Shining. Roman has been the biggest distraction. He kept us ticking along and gave us structure, but on the flip side he has been the source of pretty much every argument. When there was a little crack or a bit tension it didn’t take much for him to tip us over the edge. But, in the end, we are a team so it’s been about trying to make sure that we know we’ve got each other’s backs and figuring out a new way of existing. There have been moments when if we hadn’t been together as long as we have, who knows where we might have ended up. I’m just really grateful to have had Portia as we’ve been strong for each other. We had to figure out how it was gonna work, and if we actually liked each other. I think the answer is yes, but I can’t speak for Portia.
Portia: Pretty much from when Roman was five days old and Ore had to do the Strictly tour, he has been on the road. I got into a rhythm and then all of a sudden we’re all in the house together. At the start we said, “This is gonna be so fun,” and then a few weeks in, we started to look at each other and think, “This is going to be long.” It was getting a bit tense at times, but we have made it through. We feel closer now and we learned a lot about each other as well. Even though we’ve been together nearly 10 years, we’ve never spent this much time together before. So we were chatting about things we wouldn’t normally. He found out my favourite ice cream flavour is banana, and he was astounded!
You both thought you had Covid-19 in March too…
Ore: We never had the test, but we had 95 per cent of the symptoms. I had a chesty feeling, fever and lost my sense of taste and smell. There were 10 days where both of us were really feeling it, and we had to look after Roman too. It was quite scary as at that point nobody knew very much about the illness. This is why people were so annoyed with Dominic Cummings because countless families up and down the country would have loved to go to their parents’ houses. Thankfully, Roman was like Iron Man. He was able to just carry on and that gave us hope.
Did Roman hit any milestones in lockdown?
Portia: He has done a lot of growing up recently. His speech suddenly came on very quickly. We’ve had to stop swearing as he copies everything and we didn’t want to send him back to nursery with a potty mouth.
Ore: He’s got more empathy, and he’s grown a lot closer to us. He said, “I love you, Daddy” for the first time. I was in bits. It’s the only thing you ever really want your child to say. It will be another celebration if he also says it at 18.
Any sign of the terrible twos?
Portia: He gets frustrated because he’s at that age where he’s learning so much. We built dens and baked banana bread, but then he would get bored and throw his toys. The toddler stage was always going to be a big challenge.
Ore: We figured we need to cut his nails once a week – they grow at a crazy rate, and he’s like Wolverine when he’s in a scratching mood. Those marks will scar! He’s superhuman in some ways but he doesn’t have a sporty bone in his body. He won’t kick a ball, and he’s got more vehicles in the garage than we have, but he doesn’t want to get on a single one of them. What he does love is singing and dancing. He knows all the words to Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures theme tune and a little routine. Portia’s sister and fiancé came round for a barbecue, and I put it on. I felt such pressure as a parent when he had his moment in the spotlight. Thankfully, when the music came on, he delivered. I felt very proud.
Would you like more children?
Portia: We’ve always said that we’d love to have more if we’re lucky enough to do so, but there were points in lockdown where I thought one is enough!
Ore: We’re pretty sure Roman wants a little brother or sister. When he sees a baby he calls out “baby baby” and wants to hold them. We have to rein him in as not many people want a toddler holding their newborn. He’d be an amazing big brother, but we won’t be contributing to any baby boom right now.
Why do you not show his face on social media?
Portia: We want to wait until he can decide. We still show the highs and lows of parenthood online because that’s our life.
Ore: We would love for people to see his face because we think he is the most beautiful boy in the universe – I take 20 per cent credit for that, Portia is the rest – but our instinct is to protect him.
Ore, how have you found working with Rochelle on This Morning?
Ore: We’d talked about presenting together for a while so we were chuffed to get an opportunity. I hope we get the chance again because it was wonderful. We’ve also tried to get a playdate in so her daughters can practise having a younger brother.
The This Morning editor has reportedly pledged to make a commitment to diversity on the show. How do you feel hearing that?
Ore: Doing This Morning again was vindication for me. In any line of work, you just want to feel like you can do it and that other people think you can too. That was the overriding feeling when I got the call, rather than the diversity. However, the fact that ITV has made it clear that it has intentions to change is really important to me. Everyone feels they can go to their telly for guidance and hope, and when people switch on they want to see themselves represented. Until recently, there have been times when you watch the ITV daytime schedule and you don’t see a single black face. A large part of society don’t feel they are represented enough and the industry needs to make sure it isn’t part of that problem – it has a responsibility to change perceptions. I hope that in the coming weeks, months and years we’re going to see more diversity.
Will you speak to Roman about racism?
Ore: We haven’t got there yet, but we try to make sure that the books he reads and TV he watches are representative. We live in London so he’ll see kids that look like him, which is a start. We can’t get our heads around the thought of a world where Roman doesn’t have the same opportunities as any other kid, so we’re hoping that by the time he’s older the world has changed. You are not born racist, it’s something that is learnt so I hope this next generation of kids will be the ones waving the flag.
You celebrate five years of marriage in November, and nearly 10 years together! Does it feel like that long?
Ore: It does when we look at old photos! The wedding doesn’t feel like that long ago, probably because we still love each other so much. That feeling of excitement is still as current now as when we got married. We’ve achieved so much and it makes me love my wife even more. I’ve noticed that Portia hasn’t returned the compliment, so let’s leave a pregnant pause.
Portia: [Laughs] I love you too.
Ore: That sounded so forced!
Portia: I’m just not as good at the gushiness. I always say to him, “Try not to be too sickly.”
Who is Ore Oduba? Everything you need to know about the new This Morning presenter, from family life to career
Inside This Morning host Ore Oduba's lovely family home he shares with wife Portia and two-year-old son Roman
Ore, you started as a children’s TV presenter, but have since performed in the musical Curtains in the West End. Did you expect your career to take a different direction?
I did as many school productions as I could, but I never considered it as a career path. The lovely thing about Strictly is I got a light bulb moment when I remembered how much I loved being on stage. I trained for two and a half years after the show to make sure my skills were up to a good enough level for the paying public.
You worked together at Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place virtual festival. Would you like to do more?
Ore: I always thought it would be fun for us to work together. Then we did that and now I’m not so sure [laughs]. I posted a video of the outtakes, and Portia was rolling her eyes because I’m definitely worse than her. Portia needs to improve her patience first!
Ore, you’ve said the pressure to provide for your family has meant constantly working. Did lockdown change your attitude at all?
When we couldn’t work, my existence was challenged and compromised. We still have a house, friends and family so it’s taught me that we can cope with a lot. I probably do put a bit too much pressure on myself to support the family. It’s sometimes at the expense of enjoying time with them. Going forward it will change how I look at the work-life balance. As a freelancer you’ve got to take work when it comes in, but at the back of my head I’ll be thinking about how I can also make time for the three of us.
How often do you visit Portia’s parents’ house?
Portia: We’re here every other week. It’s our second home. It’s where a lot of Roman’s memories are and where we spend Christmas. My parents love to help us out with Roman too, and they’ve got lots of making up to do now as we weren’t able to come in lockdown! We’ve been very spoiled.
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