Rochelle Humes: Having kids made me miss father

***image_caption***

Rochelle Humes didn't realise how much she needed a father figure in her life until she had her own children.

The 30-year-old presenter has admitted that until having her two daughters Alaia-Mai, six, and two-year-old Valentina Raine with husband Marvin Humes she had never understood how important it was to have two parents, as having a dad was "something she never knew" as she was raised by her mother Roz Wiseman after her parents divorced when she was just three.

In an interview with You magazine, she said: "Having a dad was just something I never knew. I didn't realise how much I was missing until I got married and had children of my own and saw how much their dad means to my girls."

Although the former Saturdays singer has never reunited with her father Mark Piper although she did recently meet her half-sisters Lili, 23, and Sophie, 20, as well as half-brother Jake, 23, who she'd had no prior contact with.

Speaking of the family get together, Rochelle - whose uncle, retired England soccer player Paul Ince, played a big part in her upbringing - said: "Meeting up with them felt like the missing piece of the puzzle. When we sat down, all I could think was that my dad must have some pretty strong DNA because it wasn't just the way my sisters looked, it was the way they spoke, the way they moved - everything about them I recognised from myself.

"They always felt bad because they'd had my father in their lives but I told them I didn't want them to feel that.

"They were my brother and sisters and we didn't need to involve parents. We told our daughters Alaia and Vali they had two more aunts and an uncle. It's become a bigger family, which has been wonderful."