Rochelle Humes: Absent Father Earns No Respect

has said she will 'never respect' her absent father Mark Piper after he walked out on her as a baby as she opened up in an honest new interview. 

The presenter and former Saturdays singer, 37, said she doesn't 'really remember' her estranged father as he left her as a baby but for many years she was left feeling 'angry and upset'. 

It wasn't until Rochelle and her husband  welcomed their first child, daughter Alaia-Mai in 2013, that she finally lost all 'respect and curiosity' about her father. 

Despite being without a male role model, the This Morning star's uncle Paul Ince, who captained England football and played for Manchester United and West Ham, stepped up for her. 

Speaking to on his Great Company podcast, Rochelle said: 'My dad left when I was one, I don't really remember him. 

'I remember waiting for him at the window on the weekends which ended quickly because he just didn't come and there were so many years I was upset and angry about it. 

'The day I had Alaia I instantly had zero curiosity to get to know my dad and I would never respect him as a person, he is not someone I would choose to spend time with.'

Mark went on to have three children, Love Island star Sophie Piper, as well as Lili and Jake, whom Rochelle reconnected with after 23 years. 

'As a kid I did find it hard, he went on to have three other children, who are now, we are obsessed with each other but from the outside I saw he was there for them and not me', she said. 

Rochelle went on to explain how her famous footballer 'uncle' Paul, who isn't a blood relation but was always someone she 'looked up to' and eventually he walked her down the aisle when she married Marvin in 2012. 

'My uncle was there for me, he was that male presence for me, but my mum wore a lot of hats', she began. 

'But my uncle Paul would come and he played football for England, he is Paul Ince and was playing for England, he gave me away at my wedding and Marv had to ask Paul to marry me.

'It was exciting I used to go watch West Ham every weekend but he was really that male role model that I looked up to. 

'I never realised he was cool until secondary school. Claire his wife and my mum are best friends, he's not actually my blood uncle but my mum was the first one to have a child and that was it, he was always just around and always is and always will be. 

'I never felt like I didn't have a male figure around because he always made time for me, like every single weekend.'

Elsewhere in the chat, Rochelle explained that she never knew she 'didn't have a lot' as she explained how her mum raised her 'in a hostel' before eventually moving into a council flat 

She said: 'She raised me and my sister solo, she worked every job, she had me in a hostel and then we got a council flat and then a council house and then she bought the house and it was like winning the Euros. 

'I see the financial privileged we have which I have worked my a**e for but not only financially what she did as a single parent, I never knew we didn't have a lot in life.

'The only thing I did know that was different was I had to wait in a different queue for my lunch at school and I remember being so embarrassed.' 

Rochelle first found fame in S Club Juniors in the early noughties when she was 12 years old.

Rochelle said: 'My dad left when I was one, I don't really remember him. The day I had Alaia I instantly had zero curiosity to get to know my dad and I would never respect him as a person'