Ore Oduba’s eight-year-old son was left in tears after being forced to change schools halfway through the term as his family continues adjusting to the emotional and financial consequences of his parents’ divorce.
The former Strictly Come Dancing champion and his estranged wife, Portia Jett, announced their separation in 2024 following nine years of marriage.
Since then, the former couple and their two young children have faced a series of major changes, including selling the family home in Kent and Roman leaving his private preparatory school.
Portia, 36, shared an emotional photograph on Monday showing her embracing Roman before he entered his new school for the first time.
Attempting to remain positive for her son despite her own anxiety, the former television researcher wrote: “I haven’t got this, but you have.”
“First day at a new school and I couldn’t be prouder of how he’s handled all the changes. Let’s do this.”
However, Portia later admitted that the morning had been more painful than her initial message suggested.
Posting an update on Instagram Stories after dropping Roman off, she revealed that he had become deeply upset when it was time for them to separate.
“Just dropped him off. He got really upset,” she told her followers.
Portia described the difficult balancing act familiar to many parents: trying to appear calm and reassuring while privately feeling overwhelmed.
“God, as a parent nothing prepares you for holding it together, smiling, being strong, supportive and saying all the right things whilst all you want to do is cry too,” she wrote.
She acknowledged that her son was probably experiencing understandable first-day nerves and that starting somewhere unfamiliar could be frightening.
“I know it’s just first day nerves and, of course, anything new is scary,” Portia added.
“But I know he has got this.”
The mother-of-two spent the remainder of the day anxiously waiting to hear how Roman had settled into his unfamiliar surroundings.
Fortunately, her fears began to ease when she collected him later that afternoon.
In an evening update, Portia said she felt “so relieved” after learning that Roman had managed to enjoy his first day despite his emotional start.
“I’d been feeling anxious all day but he had a good first day,” she told followers.
“His teacher said he was a little shy but made friends and did really well. So I’m happy. Tomorrow we go again.”
The reassuring news marked a small but significant victory for the family after a period filled with considerable disruption.
Roman’s mid-term school move came after Ore, 40, and Portia sold the Kent property they had bought together in 2022.
The decision to part with the family home was another painful consequence of their separation and proved particularly difficult for their children to understand.
Portia previously revealed that she had told Roman and his four-year-old sister, Genie, about the impending sale in March.
She admitted that Roman had been especially distressed by the news.
“I told the children that we are selling the house,” she said at the time.
“It’s hard, especially for Roman, to have these conversations. He’s really upset.”
Portia explained that she had tried to give the children an age-appropriate explanation for why their home needed to be sold.
“I wanted to let the kids know. I tried to explain why,” she said.
“It’s gutting, and I’ve known for a while.”
For a young child already adapting to his parents living separate lives, losing both his familiar home and school in a relatively short period represented an enormous amount of change.
Portia’s social-media updates showed the emotional impact those decisions have had, while also highlighting her determination to help Roman approach his new beginning with confidence.
Ore and Portia married in 2015 after reportedly meeting at Loughborough University.
Their family life was occasionally shared with the public as Ore’s television career grew, particularly after he won Strictly Come Dancing in 2016.
Partnered with professional dancer Joanne Clifton, the presenter lifted the Glitterball Trophy after competing in what became the programme’s most-watched final.
The victory transformed Ore into a household name and opened the door to new opportunities in entertainment.
After Strictly, he expanded his career into musical theatre and appeared in productions including the UK tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, playing inventor Caractacus Potts.
However, Ore has since admitted that his career has not always provided the security outsiders might have expected.
Around the time of his Strictly success, he moved away from being employed directly by the BBC and became self-employed.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Ore said his victory on the dancing competition had briefly created what he described as a “false sense of stability”.
“I’ve always wanted to live within my means, but I do feel Strictly gave me a false sense of stability,” he explained.
The unpredictable nature of freelance entertainment work contributed to periods of financial uncertainty.
Ore has also spoken openly about money he spent while struggling with a longstanding compulsive relationship with pornography.
He said the issue began after he was exposed to adult material at the age of nine and continued to affect him for decades.
In a frank discussion about his greatest financial successes and failures, he admitted: “I’ve spent thousands on pornography.”
Ore has described the compulsion as destructive and said it severely damaged his wellbeing.
He chose to speak publicly about his experiences partly to warn parents about the dangers of children being exposed to sexual material at a young age, particularly through social media and unrestricted internet access.
The presenter has also disclosed that the struggle once contributed to an extremely serious mental-health crisis.
His account underlined why early exposure and online safeguarding should be treated as urgent issues rather than sources of shame.
Following the sale of the Kent family home, Ore admitted he was uncertain whether he would immediately purchase another property.
Having previously regarded home ownership as an obvious milestone, he said he was reconsidering whether it remained the most effective investment for him.
“Having been a property owner, some of the information I’m reading is making me wonder if property ownership is as efficient an investment as I’d been led to believe,” he said.
Ore reflected that much of his earlier life had been shaped by conventional expectations about what a successful adult should do.
“A lot of my life has followed the path of what was meant to happen, what I thought were acceptable and traditional means and methods,” he explained.
“But essentially, just because I’ve sold a house doesn’t necessarily mean I need to buy another one.”
Instead, he said he was investigating other investment possibilities that might suit his present circumstances more effectively.
Ore even joked about embracing a much simpler and less conventional lifestyle.
“In terms of property, honestly, sometimes I’m all but ready to buy a motorhome and get a dog,” he said.
“Home for me is way beyond bricks and mortar.”
While Ore explores the next stage of his personal and financial life, Portia has also begun rebuilding after the end of their marriage.
She has retrained as a qualified personal trainer and regularly shares updates about exercise, parenting and her new relationship with her approximately 51,000 Instagram followers.
Her candid posts about Roman’s school move offered followers an insight into the less glamorous reality of family separation.
The practical consequences of divorce can extend far beyond the relationship between two adults.
Children may be required to move house, leave friends behind, enter new classrooms and adapt to routines they never chose.
Portia’s updates captured both sides of that experience: the heartbreak of watching her son cry at the school gates and the enormous relief of hearing that he had made friends only hours later.
For Roman, the first morning may have felt frightening, but his teacher’s report suggested he had already begun taking his first steps towards settling in.
The day ended with the positive outcome his mother had been desperately hoping for.
Portia acknowledged that the adjustment would not be completed overnight, writing simply: “Tomorrow we go again.”
The words reflected the family’s wider situation as they continue navigating life following the divorce.
There may be more difficult mornings, emotional conversations and unfamiliar changes ahead.
Yet Roman’s successful first day also provided a hopeful reminder that even after a tearful goodbye, a painful new beginning can gradually become a fresh start.
