TV presenter Jay Blades has said he thinks he has many more siblings who “don’t want to be found”.
The Repair Shop star, 53, opened up about the number of people his biological father, whom he refers to as the “man who contributed towards my birth”, has fathered over the years.
Blades revealed that he has found 27 brothers and sisters, but believes there are “loads” more who could be residing in the UK, US and Jamaica.
The presenter’s mother, Barbara, gave birth to him when she was 16 or 17. He said that his biological father “promised [her] that he [was] going to get a flat and they’re going to live happily ever after”.
However, he ended up “taking the money and left [my mother] high and dry”. Blades and his mother later found shelter in a women’s refuge, before going to live with her uncle and then getting a council house.
His biological father reappeared in his life when he was five years old and again when Blades was in his early twenties.
“I knew I had more brothers and sisters, and when I went to London with [the man who contributed to my birth] and met the people he was living with, there were four there,” Blades recalled in an appearance on The Big Fish podcast with Spencer Matthews.
“I said to him, ‘I know there’s more, I remember meeting a sister that was older than me, when you had me at five’. And he said, ‘No, no’. I said, ‘Are you sure?’ ‘No, no, no, there’s no more.”
But the Money For Nothing star said his half-sister called him to tell him there were “loads more” siblings, specifying that there were 25.
“That’s just in this country,” he said. “There’s some in Jamaica and some in America as well. I think he used to be a rabbit. I did challenge him after, and I’ve met 11 of them.”
Asked if there were siblings he hasn’t met, Blades said: “100 per cent loads. And since being on TV, two more have come out of the woodwork… A lot of them don’t want to be found and don’t want to be related to the man who’s contributed towards my birth because he’s put nothing into them. Some of them feel shame.”
Blades added that he has a “real problem” with his biological father, to whom he had only spoken to “about four times in my entire life”.
He recalled the last conversation they had, during which his biological father said he had a “picture frame” that needed repairing.
“I was like, ‘There’s appropriate channels, go to the BBC website’. And he’s like, ‘You don’t know who this is, do you?’
“’I said, ‘I know who this is, this is the man that contributed towards my birth. What is it you’re after?’”
Blades’ biological father then claimed that “everything you’re doing is because of me” and said he was responsible for the presenter’s success.
“So I said to him, I don’t know how you’ve worked that out, but one thing I must give you is this – you have taught me how not to be a father, and I can thank you for that. So if you have nothing further to say, I just want to bid you good day’.”
