JLS star Oritse Williams urges men to show their emotions

Perth Now

27-04-2025

Oritse Williams was an "absolute mess" when he finally let himself cry following his wife's two miscarriages.
The JLS singer's spouse Kazz tragically lost two babies before they welcomed their son Shiva into the world last October, and the 38-year-old pop star has called for men to express their emotions instead of always feeling they have to be strong for other people.
He told MailOnline: "I feel like it's very important for men to not internalise their emotions because as men, we are so frightened, especially black men, of feeling weak, of being perceived as insecure, being emotional.
"It's very important for us to be able to voice our feelings and be comfortable with them, share our feelings.
"Just from my own experience, when we lost the babies, I had I had that emotion inside for a very long time.
"My wife's emotions, Kazz's emotions, it was out there. She was battling with those emotions.
"I thought me being strong for her was bottling my emotions up. One day, she turned around and was like, Don't you feel anything?
"I just broke down, exasperated in tears on the floor. And she had to console me and lift me up. And I was just an absolute mess.
"But you know what? In that, I felt the most free because I felt like I had all this emotion and feeling that was inside of me that kept on just bubbling and bubbling and was just going around in this cycle. And it needed to be released."
Oritse also has 10-year-old son Omre from a previous relationship and admitted he has spent much of the boy's life "fighting" to be able to see him.
He said: "So again, the yin and yang of life. I've been fighting for access to my first son for eight and a half years, so I still I don't have that access, unfortunately. And that's always tough. That always is very heavy on my heart.
"There's not a day, a moment, a second, or a minute that goes by where I don't think of my first son. I It's been eight and a half years. You can't get that time back. He can't get that time back. I can't get that time back.
"We can't get that time back. My family, his grandmother, my mom, his uncle's cousin and aunties, none of us can get that time back. So once it's gone, it's gone. And so that is heavy. That continues to be heavy. I'm still fighting with everything I got, with every penny I have."
The 'Beat Again' hitmaker credited his faith and his loved ones for getting him through the tough time.
Asked how he has overcome his struggles, he said: "First, family and friends, having wonderful family and friends that just love me dearly and support me. And having prayer. I'll be straight up.
"Prayer and having people and friends around me that pray with me.
"I break it down like this. Spiritual therapy, physical therapy, and emotional therapy, the physical therapy I found in martial arts, the spiritual therapy through prayer, and the emotional therapy through music.
"And so I really, really threw myself into all of that to get through crazy amounts of adversity in my life."