LOVE Island star Jamie Jewitt admitted initially feeling a disconnection from his children when they were born.
Reality star Jamie, 34, met and began a relationship with Camilla Thurlow on the ITV2 dating show in 2017.
Jamie Jewitt shares three children with wife Camilla Thurlow[/caption]
The couple met on Love Island and married four years later[/caption]
Jamie has addressed initial challenges of fatherhood[/caption]
The couple married four years later and welcomed Nell, four, Nora, two and nine-month-old Brodie together.
Writing on his Substack, Jamie reflected on becoming a father for the first time.
He penned: “Let’s talk about the moment you become a dad. The “big one”.
“The Hollywood moment… you’re supposedly overcome with a tidal wave of love the instant your baby enters the world. Except… what if you’re not?”
In particular, Jamie recounted the birth of his first daughter, Nell, back in 2020.
He continued: “You’re standing in a room that smells like bleach and adrenaline, watching the love of your life go through something you can barely comprehend.
“And then someone hands you this tiny, wrinkled screaming creature and your first thought is: “Oh… so this is it?”
Admitting it had taken time to feel a bond with his kids, Jamie questioned the widespread belief that new dads should feel an instant burst of love.
He wrote: “We’ve been fed a lie. A dangerous, damaging, and ironically, well-intentioned lie.
“A mother has carried the baby for nine months. Her hormones have transformed her body, rewired her brain, and prepared her emotionally and physically for motherhood.
“A father, by contrast, is often still adjusting to the idea that there’s even going to be a baby. And yet, the expectation is that we’re both supposed to experience that first moment exactly the same. Spoiler alert: we don’t.”
Meanwhile, the star also claimed that he wasn’t alone in feeling these emotions.
He said: “I didn’t feel anything… at least not at first. They whisper it. They say it like it’s a confession. Like they’re broken, or deficient, or cold.”
Jamie then said fathers’ hormonal shifts come later – and through day-to-day interaction with the baby.
He penned: “That’s the secret no one tells you: love predominantly grows in the doing.
“It’s in the late-night bottle feeds, the burp that hits your chest like a warm milk bomb, the moment your baby recognises your face and cracks their first real smile.
“It’s not love at first sight. It’s a love that builds with effort, sacrifice, presence.’
Jamie continued: “It didn’t happen the day my child was born. It happened after weeks of showing up through the self-doubt and battles with that internal monologue.
“Until one day I realised the moment had crept up on me… I had slowly and assuredly snuck into the spotlight and became a leading character in my little girl’s world.
“To this day my world is dedicated to becoming the best dad I can be. Not because I’m supposed to. Because I want to. Because I love them.
“When I look at any of my children bleary-eyed, heart full, I realise I would do anything for them.
Jamie said he hopes sharing these thoughts will help ease pressure on first-time dads.
He said: “If you’re a new dad and you’re not feeling it yet, relax. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not broken. You’re not cold. You’re just not done.
“Give it time. Show up. Keep showing up. Because when that connection does hit, it won’t be because the world told you to feel it. It’ll be because you built it.”
Last May, Jamie and Camilla welcomed their third child[/caption]