Mo Gilligan blasted by the mother of his ‘secret love child’

The mother of Mo Gilligan’s ‘secret child’ has blasted him for ‘barely seeing’ his son – claiming she can ‘can count on her fingers and toes’ how many times they’ve met.

The comedian, 37, who is reportedly expecting another baby with his current girlfriend, is said to have had a short-lived romance with Selina Christoforou and she gave birth to a son named Rudi in January 2024.

Selina has now condemned Mo’s parenting in a viral TikTok video and claimed that Mo has not consistently been in her son’s life and said he was ‘very clear he didn’t want to be a dad’.

Sharing her version of events, Selina said: ‘I just finally posted on Instagram about my son’s dad so for your information…

‘If you don’t follow my Instagram I don’t blame you. Um, Mo Gilligan is his dad. Very much in quotation marks.’  

‘I’ve kept that for nine very long months of being pregnant on my own, bringing up my son on my own.

‘Pretty much ignored his existence for the first year of his life, barely bothers with him now – can probably use my fingers and toes to count how many times he’s even f***ing met him, you know. I kept thinking no, it’ll get better. It has to get better.

‘Rudi, that’s my son, is so unbelievable, he’s the most amazing child. He’s such a f***ing joy and I just kept thinking that would be enough.

‘I completely get you can’t make someone be a dad and he made it also very clear he didn’t want to be a dad and seemed to kind of change his mind.’

Selina is said to have become pregnant after dating Mo after they met online and decided to keep the unborn child, despite it coming as a shock to the ‘careful’ pair.

Daily Mail contacted a representative for Mo Gilligan who declined to comment. 

The news that Mo had apparently become a dad had remained under wraps until this week, when it was reported that Mo had fathered a secret baby and was expecting a second with a different mother, his girlfriend Taia Tulher, 28.

Sources said that Mo, who stars on The Masked Singer, is now expecting the new arrival in just a matter of weeks with Taia.

It’s thought that the couple have been quietly dating for two years, and are now living together in London.

Mo previously split from his girlfriend of four years, actress Sophie Wise, at the end of 2022, and it was then revealed he was looking for love on celebrity dating app Raya.

Taia had first revealed her pregnancy in an Instagram post back in March, but had never revealed her partner’s identity.

Revealing her growing bump, she captioned her post: ‘Today, I carry the love that made me, the love I’ve always known… and the love I’ve only just begun to understand.

‘For a long time, I didn’t know when I would share this. But now feels right. Because today, on Mother’s Day, I get to celebrate my own mother – and the tiny soul who has already made me one, too.’

Mo has previously opened up about the mental health struggles he had during his rise to fame in his 20s, before turning to therapy to help him cope.

The comedian shot to fame in 2017 after going viral on social media and what followed was a string of huge TV gigs, including The Masked Singer, after joining the judging panel in 2020.

Speaking to Jamie Laing on the Great Company podcast on Wednesday, Mo admitted that he ‘lost’ himself as the money came rolling in – before therapy helped him break down his walls and connect with people.

‘I lost myself, I struggled in a sense of ‘Wow this is all I’ve wanted, I’ve got the big cheque, but I’m not in the happiest place’,’ he said. 

‘I was massively depressed. That’s when I started therapy. I didn’t cry in my twenties, I put up a wall, and when I got depressed it all came out. 

‘Therapy helped me open up not so much to my therapist but other people, to let my real personality out and connect.’

In 2022, Mo accepted the award for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at the BAFTA TV Awards and used his speech to speak about his mental health. 

‘Oh s**t I’m so nervous. I have to big up Channel 4. In 2017 when I got offered a show, my mental health wasn’t in the best place,’ he reflected. 

‘Channel 4 brought me into this big building. They trusted me and let me be myself and bring black boy joy to the screens.

The comedian was dealt a blow in 2023 after losing two of his television presenting gigs in one week.

He revealed that year that Channel 4’s The Lateish Show would not be returning after four series, and then his BBC show That’s My Jam was given the chop by the broadcaster after one series.

He was hand-picked for the programme by American comedian and television host Jimmy Fallon with the show being based on the music-themed segments of the US star’s talk show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Mo also presented the BRIT Awards for two yeas in a row, but stepped down in 2023.