Love Island UK alum Jamie Jewitt is getting candid about fatherhood.
Jewitt, 35, met his wife, Camilla Thurlow, 36, on the third season of Love Island UK and the couple are now proud parents to three children: daughters Nell, 4, Nora, 3, and son Brodie, 15 months.
However, in a recent blog post shared on the couple’s Substack, Jewitt admitted that he didn’t immediately develop a connection with his firstborn when Thurlow gave birth to Nell in October 2020.
Jewitt shared his sentiments that new parents are meant to be “overcome with a tidal wave of love the instant your baby enters the world,” but questioned, “What if you’re not?”
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“What if instead, 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?’” he wrote. “That was my moment. And I know now that I’m not alone.”
Jewitt said he’s spoken to other dads who have had similar experiences. “Most have admitted something quietly: ‘I didn’t feel anything… at least not at first,’” he wrote. “They whisper it. They say it like it’s a confession. Like they’re broken, or deficient, or cold.”
The reality star believes that “we’ve been conditioned to believe that not feeling an instant, overpowering love means something is wrong with us. That we’re heartless. Emotionally void. Maybe even unfit.”
To the contrary, Jewitt wrote that for some dads, like him, creating an emotional bond with your child takes time.
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“That’s the secret no one tells you: love predominantly grows in the doing,” he shared. “It’s in the late-night bottle feeds, the burp that hits your chest like a warm milk bomb, the moment your baby recognizes your face and cracks their first real smile.”
Jewitt continued, “It’s not love at first sight. It’s a love that builds with effort. sacrifice. Presence.”
The dad-of-three concluded the post by advising readers, “So 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,” he wrote.
