Strictly winner Ore Oduba poses in Pride pants for powerful reason
Ore Oduba says he battled porn addiction for 30 years. (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for The National Lottery)
Ore Oduba says he battled porn addiction for 30 years. (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for The National Lottery)
Ore Oduba, the winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, has explained the rainbow emoji in his Instagram bio while also showing off a Pride speedo.
The TV and radio presenter, 39, posted three images to his account recently which showed him in white swimming briefs. On the front was a rainbow logo while the back showed the word “Pride” emblazoned in rainbow letters.
“Lots of people have been asking about the rainbow in my bio.,” Oduba said in the caption. “Some will say I don’t need to explain myself (and they’d be right),” he said.
“However in this case I’m happy to share my why. It’s maybe not why you think.”
Referencing “a truly difficult, stormy period in my life,” in which he said he’d grown, Oduba said, “the colours of my rainbow look very bright today.”
He then explained the rainbow was a reference to his late non-binary sibling. “In losing my sister in April the symbol of a rainbow has brought me closer to them in the times I’ve needed it desperately,” he said.
“My sister was very proudly black and very proudly queer. Definitely an ICON to me and so many of their friends and family. In the last year of their life they identified as non-binary. My pride for them knows no bounds.”
Oduba then went on to share how his sibling and their struggle had inspired him. “Despite doing a whole lot of living in their latter years, my sister spent much of their life in shame and humiliation of who they were,” he said. “In so many ways, my sister’s death gave ME a gift of life. Having realised I’d lived the majority of my life for the attention of others, often suppressing my authentic self, my sister gave me the wake up call to live my life fully and express myself wholeheartedly.”
The Strictly winner then addressed his sexuality after being “keenly asked” by a follower a day earlier. “No, not in the traditional or sexual sense,” he confirmed.
“But if ‘coming out’ is about shedding a former self to put forward the new, truest version of me, without the shame, the hiding, without the second-guessing whether any decision will make me happy rather than how others perceive me, how I cheerlead others with kindness and compassion, with occasionally quiet, or loud, flamboyance, depending on the mood, and a big dollop of camp then HALLELUJAH count me in!”
He closed the caption saying that his sibling had “taught me so much about the queer community.” It was “the one place they truly felt belonging,” he continued. “I will always keep your rainbow flag flying in my heart. I love you.”
In addition to losing his sibling in April, Oduba separated from his wife, Portia Culmer, last October. The two, who married in 2015, share two children, seven-year-old Roman, and four-year-old Genie. Oduba also celebrated a year of sobriety in July.
