Strictly Come Dancing star breaks down in tears and admits 'I'm ashamed'

Former Strictly Come Dancing winner Ore Oduba was reduced to tears as he described the way he was duped by an online hoax. The emotional TV star addressed his Instagram followers in a six-minute video and revealed how scammers took advantage of his passion for US podcaster Mel Robbins and her series of self-help books.

The presenter, who danced his way to a Glitterball trophy in 2016, even publicly advocated for the American author during a previous appearance on the ITV show Loose Women. Ore claimed the philosophy she promotes in bestselling 2024 release The Let Them Theory had "changed his life." The 39-year-old who once helped others avoid scammers on the BBC documentary, Claimed and Shamed, revealed that he was contacted by someone who claimed to be Mel after his appearance on the daytime talk show.

Ore recalled: "I reposted that interview, I tagged the Mel Robbins podcast, tagged the Let Me theory, tagged Mel, tagged everybody who cared, and then I got an email from my agent who forwarded on an email from the team at the Mel Robbins podcast.

"I could have cried, they knew who I was! I got an email from the Mel Robbins podcast team."

He added: "I told Mel everything. How she had changed my life. And I literally said at the end of the email, even for you to know who I am, is everything. Thank you so much for getting in touch."

Ore admitted he was "ashamed and embarrassed" by the scam, as the tearful star reflected on how the fake sender invited him onto the Robbins' podcast, which is currently among the top 15 podcasts in the United States with more than 20 million subscribers.

"I'm reading this back and I know exactly how it made me feel at the time," he said. "I wrote back and I said,' Mel, I'm holding back tears. Is this for real? You must have AI helping you correspond with all of these fans.'

"Mel wrote back, 'of course it's me - it's Mel Robbins!' So then I lost my s***, I absolutely lost my s***, in tears on an Avanti West Coast train from Birmingham to London, thinking that my whole life was about to change.'"

The former Newsround host added: "By the way, I used to host a show about scammers. I have watched enough Watchdog to last a lifetime - that doesn't stop me being in the middle of it. I never thought I'd be the person that would be scammed."

Ore eventually realised the email had been sent from a Gmail account, which was an immediate red flag and that Mel's name had been incorrectly spelt with an inaccurate double L.

His worst fears were confirmed when he contacted Mel's PR team from her official website and they responded that any correspondence via a Gmail account wasn't from the author.

In his lengthy caption, Ore added: "Listen to your gut, it's most likely telling you the truth. And don't get scammed, it's no fun.

"Still inspired by and love Mel Robbins and so grateful to them for their swift response. I got lucky - it could so easily have been too late."