Jake Quickenden has opened up about the importance of honesty around parenting struggles, after he expressed concerns son Leo 'hates' him amid bonding difficulties.
After girlfriend Sophie Church gave birth to the couple's adorable baby Leo Oliver last month, star of MTV's Celebrity Bumps: Famous and Pregnant Jake recently claimed, "I keep thinking Leo hates me, he won’t settle for me half as good as he does for Soph...I’m also very emotional and I wasn’t expecting it to be so hard."
And now Jake's explained it's important not to 'sugarcoat' the struggles of parenting as he teases a project with fellow new fathers and Love Island stars Marcel Somerville and Jamie Jewitt.
Speaking to heatworld, Jake said, "It's so important to be real and honest. Instagram is pretty fake; not everything's perfect on there. Just because people see someone on TV, they automatically assume their life's perfect; but it isn't.
"There are struggles and it's not easy. I've found it difficult bonding with Leo. I felt like he didn't want to be held by me as much as he did by Sophie. He's only three weeks old, but it's alright for a man to feel that way.
"I had a lot of messages from guys saying 'thanks for saying that, mate. I've had that, too.'
"If I can help one person, that's great. People think the dad's role is to support the mum, which it obviously is. But the dad also has a role in supporting the baby and trying to bond, feed and get them in the nappies. It can be harder for a dad to do those things.
"It's important to let dads know that, if a baby cries every time you hold him, it's fine. It's spent nine months in the mum's belly; it knows everything about the mum.
"Imagine Leo; greeted by my set of teeth, looking over him, being loud as f***, he must think 'what have I been born into?' There are little issues, I'm not going to try and sugarcoat anything."
"I talk to Marcel Somerville and Jamie [Jewitt] and Camilla [Thurlow]. I'm good mates with Jamie; me, him and Marcel are working on something that'll be coming out soon which should be quite good.
"There's not often something from the dad's perspective; so we're working on something that will be good for them and the mum's to listen to. I talk to Jamie quite a lot, but I can only speak to people through messages and Instagram.
"Obviously nobody can come round right now, so there's been a lot of FaceTiming and asking questions. The midwife gave us her number, too. She must hate me. When she gave me her number, I was like 'you do realise I don't have an off switch?'"
Celebrity Bumps: Famous and Pregnant continues on MTV tonight at 8pm.