Ore Oduba Calls Pornography a ‘Public Health Crisis’ After Battling Addiction and Suicidal Thoughts

Strictly winner Ore Oduba has warned that the widespread availability of extreme online pornography has become a ‘public health crisis’.

The presenter, 39, told the Daily Mail’s Life of Bryony podcast that children on smartphones are just ‘three to six clicks away’ from viewing adult content at any time.

He revealed his own 30-year battle with pornography addiction, which brought him to ‘a point of suicidal ideation’.

First exposed at age nine, Oduba described how the addiction gave him panic attacks, hurt his relationships and cost him ‘thousands of pounds’ on subscription sites.

The TV star said he wanted to end the shame around pornography addiction and encourage sufferers to get help. He also called on tech companies to do more to protect children from accessing extreme content.

‘We are growing up on an unhealthy diet of sexualised content’, Oduba told columnist Bryony Gordon.

‘What I have watched happen since my adolescence is terrifying… what’s becoming normal on these platforms has flipped on its head.

‘The level of extremity. The level of violence… there has been a real normalisation about how accessible this stuff is.

‘This year, the Children’s Commissioner published this report about what I think amounts to a public health crisis for young people.

‘Kids as young as six years old are accessing harmful adult content. It’s normal.

‘The average age is between 11-13 for seeing this type of material, 60% of those are by accident.

‘They’re not even trying to look for it. They’re just going about their everyday, normal online activity and things are popping up.

‘You are always just a couple of clicks away from this content – 80% of it appears on social media. It is normal for that content to be violent too.’

Oduba described the constant compulsion to view explicit material as being ‘destroyed from the inside out’ – and revealed he became a ‘master at masking’ his double life from friends and family.

He said: ‘I had this inner conflict – a gut feeling that was so against the path I was going down.

‘It got to the point of suicidal ideation… it gets to a point where you feel hopeless, where you think I can’t go down this route anymore and I feel like there’s only one way out.’

Oduba’s recovery was spurred by the tragic death of his non-binary sibling Lola, who died by suicide in April 2025. He said his sister had also battled addiction and mental health struggles. 

After 18 months sober, the presenter offered advice to others struggling with the addiction. Like drug or alcohol dependency, he said, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

The presenter said: ‘The moment we understand we’re going through something, or struggling with something, is the point at which we can start to change. That person isn’t you and there is help out there.

‘I look at the world we’re all living through now, this digital smartphone world – a lot of what’s happening isn’t consciously our decision.

‘You should develop an understanding that this behaviour isn’t a choice.

‘You need to speak to the people out there that care about you. We think, at that moment, that nobody will accept this version of us.

‘But when do we reach out and realise they do accept us for who we are – they can help guide you through something really difficult.

‘It’s a daily battle that will take small steps… I went through a number of rock bottoms as well as years of therapy, two bereavements and a huge life change to be able to finally go – I see what’s happening and I want to change it.

‘We have so much to live for in a positive, beautiful way, with the people that we care about.’

For confidential support, contact Samaritans on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org

If you are struggling with similar issues, help can be found via the charity nakedtruthproject.com. 

You can listen to the full interview with Ore Oduba by searching for The Life of Bryony now, wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.